KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded two relatives of a minor girl in police custody in connection with her alleged abduction, rape and murder in Karachi’s Quaidabad area last month.
Three-year-old Kalsoom was allegedly kidnapped on June 24. Her body was later found in a gunny bag outside her home in Muslimabad Colony.
The investigating officer produced the suspects — a male cousin and the sister-in-law of the girl’s father — before the judicial magistrate in Malir and sought their physical remand for interrogation.
The investigating officer told the court that the suspects, who were relatives of the victim’s father, were allegedly involved in the crime and had confessed during initial police interrogation.
After hearing the investigating officer, the court remanded the suspects in police custody for four days and directed police to produce them at the next hearing along with a progress report.
A day earlier, police had claimed that the female suspect allegedly killed the girl over a longstanding family dispute, while the male suspect allegedly subjected the body to a “criminal assault” in an attempt to make the case appear to be a rape-murder and mislead the family and the public.
According to police, the male suspect told investigators that his sister and the girl’s mother had a history of domestic disputes and frequently quarrelled.
Police alleged that, due to the longstanding grudge, the female suspect took Kalsoom to her home and strangled her. She then allegedly placed the body in a gunny bag and asked the male suspect to dispose of it.
A case was registered at Quaidabad police station under Sections 363, 376, 377, 201, 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.- The Dawn/ANN
