Man accused of manhandling pregnant woman acquitted as victim goes missing

A special court has acquitted a man of charges of beating a pregnant woman in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighborhood after she remained untraceable, which led to the accused filing an application for his acquittal.

Muhammad Dawood, a security guard, had been charged with physically assaulting Sana Akram, a domestic help, over a trivial matter within the remits of the Sharea Faisal police station in August last year.

He was booked and arrested after CCTV footage showing him beating up the woman went viral on social media and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah took notice of it.

The accused moved an application under the Section 265-K of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) seeking his acquittal in the case for "want of evidence".

Special Gender-Based Violence Court (East) Judge Ilyas A Memon observed that the allegations levelled by the prosecution against the accused were not supported by two prosecution witnsses — Asif Iqbal and Muhammad Rasheed —in their testimonies. Moreover, he added the victim had moved to an unknown location and there was no probability of procuring her attendance for recording her statement.

"I am convinced with the arguments advanced by learned counsel for the accused and material available on record that there is no probability of accused being convicted, and to connect the accused with the commission of the offence," the judge said.

"It is suffice to say that the case of prosecution suffers from infirmities," the judge observed. He pointed out that the material available on record was insufficient to convict the accused and it was a settled law that even a single doubt in the case of prosecution went in favour of the accused.

Hence, the judge allowed the application of the accused, acquitting him of the charges. According to the prosecution, the guard had tortured the housemaid in Noman Grand City, an apartment complex in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

Abdul Nasir, Adil Khan and Mehmood Khalil, members of the union of the residential complex, were also named in the FIR lodged on the complaint of the victim. However, the court discharged them from the case on the investigation officer’s recommendation.

According to the content of the FIR, the woman, a resident of Bin Qasim Town, worked as a housemaid at a flat in the building where her son, Sohail, had arrived on August 5 to give her food items, but he was stopped by some union members of the building.

She added that as she protested over her son not being allowed to enter the building, one of the union members, Adil, misbehaved with her and directed security guard Dawood to deal with her, after which he beat her up. She said she was six-month pregnant and fell unconscious after she was manhandled by the security guard.

An FIR was lodged under the sections 337-A(i) (shajjah-i-khafifah), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).