Rickshaw driver handed down life imprisonment in kidnapping and rape case

A sessions court has sentenced a rickshaw driver to life imprisonment in a case pertaining to abduction and rape of a teenage girl.

The rickshaw driver, Ajmal, was found guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting the girl aged between 16 and 17 years in Lines Area in August 2022. Additional Sessions Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja announced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both the prosecution and defence sides.

He ruled that the prosecution had successfully established the charge against the accused, sentencing him to life imprisonment for committing offence punishable under the Section 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage, etc) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The judge awarded the convict 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping the girl and ordered him to pay a collective fine of Rs100,000 or undergo an additional six month imprisonment on default. According to the prosecution, on the night of August 4, 2022, the accused abducted the girl and sexually abused her.

The victim testifed that on May 4, she was present at her home when her father was trying to sleep after taking sleep-inducing pills. Unable to sleep due to noise, he slapped her and her younger brother, she said.

Enraged, she left her home to go to her aunt's house, the victim deposed, adding that while she was waiting for a bus at Kalapul, a rickshaw arrived, and its driver forcibly took her into the rickshaw, transporting her to his residence. She said the accused sexually abused her at his house.

Advocate Bahzad Akbar of the Legal Aid Society, who represented the complainant, contended that the accused sexually abused the girl after abducting her. The medical evidence, as well as the victim's statement fully implicated the accused in the case, pleading with the judge to punish the accused as per the law.

In his statement under the Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused, however, said the girl had willingly boarded his rickshaw. Weeping, the girl said her father had expelled her from home, hesaid, adding that she requested him to take her to his residence from where she would leave for Hyderabad. So, he took her to his home where his brother, sister-in-law, and their child were present. He further stated that in the morning, he contacted her parents and later handed her over to them. An FIR was lodged under the sections 365-B, 376 and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Mehmoodabad police station.