Three men remanded for selling, buying infant in Karachi
KARACHI: An alleged drug addict, businessman and suspected broker were remanded on Tuesday by a judicial magistrate in police custody for three days for investigation into an alleged child selling and purchasing case.
A five-month-old boy was sold and bought in Karachi under a written deal, where the amount was agreed to be paid in multiple installments.
The JM-IX of District East ordered the police investigation officer to file a progress sheet with regards to the case and present the suspected seller, Safdar, the alleged buyer, Faheem, and Aqeel, who was believed to be the middle man, before him again on August 3.
The father of the infant, Saqib, had lodged a complaint with the Brigade police station on July 29 stating that his brother Safdar had taken away the five-month-old boy and other children of the family from his in-laws’ place on the pretext of buying them some sweets from a nearby shop in their Lines Area neighbourhood. Safdar had not returned his brother’s infant while the other kids came home safely.
Saqib told the police that his brother would have kidnapped the infant for money because he was a drug addict and his reputation was not good as he had been into such, or other criminal acts to fulfill his financial needs for purchasing drugs.
The police dug into the case and took hold of Safdar, who pointed out the whereabouts of the child in a house in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The investigators recovered the child from the custody of Faheem, arresting him and Aqeel.
SHO Nasrullah Khan of Brigade police station said that Faheem, in his defence, had maintained that he had legally adopted the child and Aqeel was not only a witness to this deal but also facilitated the adoption deal with a commission.
“He showed us an affidavit sort of piece of writing in which it was written that Safdar was handing over the child to Faheem under no duress and in return was accepting a sum,” Khan said, adding that, however, his criminal intimidation in the whole scenario was evident.
“He [Faheem] himself is an educated person and does business in the markets, so how come he does not know or has ever heard about a proper mechanism for adopting a child?” the SHO questioned. “Faheem seems to be at fault and is coming up with a cover story,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aqeel and Safdar also maintain their innocence. The case is registered under section 364-A and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
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