A court on Saturday sent the principal and owner of a private school to prison in judicial custody in a case pertaining to sexual abuse of several women on the pretext of providing them a job.
Irfan Memon was arrested on September 4 after videos purportedly depicting him assaulting several women emerged on social media. He has been booked on charges of sexual assault, insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment, and criminal intimidation.
The investigating officer, Ali Asghar Abro, produced the suspect before the judicial magistrate (Malir) on the expiry of his physical remand in police custody, and requested further extension in his remand for the completion of the investigation.
The magistrate, however, sent the suspect to prison on judicial remand with a direction to the IO to complete his investigation and submit an interim charge sheet within the stipulated time.
During the previous hearing, two of the alleged victims had identified the suspect before the magistrate and recorded their deposition under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). One of the women testified that she had gone to the principal to seek a job three months back. She recounted that he instructed her to come after school hours for a job interview, and when she went there, he closed his office’s doors and threatened her not to make noise, subjecting her to sexual abuse.
The woman said the suspect told her that her job would start next Saturday and promised a Rs50,000 salary. During her next visit on Saturday, she said, he once again subjected her to abuse, and upon her resistance he physically assaulted her and told her that CCTV cameras were installed in his office, threatening to share her videos and photos on the interent. She didn’t disclose her ordeal out of fear, she added.
The other woman said that when she came to know about the arrest of Irfan through social media, she went to the police station to record her statement. She said the suspect had promised her job but never gave one, adding that during her first visit, he gave her Rs5,000 and shot her video and called her three to four times to his office.