SC dismisses bail plea of man booked for Hindu girl’s rape

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday dismissed a pre-arrest bail application of a man booked in a rape case.

The applicant, Mohammad Saleem, was booked by the Umerkot police for raping a 12-year-old Hindu girl along with his accomplices, Cheelo and Harchand, on February 14. According to the prosecution, the applicant and the other co-accused raped the girl while she was working in a field.

The applicant’s counsel submitted that his client was falsely implicated in the case and requested the SC to grant protective pre-arrest bail so that he could appear before the trial court. However, the state counsel opposed the applicant’s plea for protective bail and submitted that a medical report had proved the involvement of the applicant in the crime. After hearing the arguments, the apex court dismissed the pre-arrest bail application.

Missing persons cases

The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed various federal and provincial law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and joint investigation teams (JITs) to submit progress reports with regard to the recovery of missing persons.

Hearing identical petitions on disappearances of persons in different parts of the city, the SHC took exception to the slow pace of investigations being conducted in the missing persons cases and directed the investigation officers concerned to use modern technology for the recovery of the missing persons.

The court also took notice of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) not providing the immigration details of missing persons to the police investigators. Petitioners submitted that the police and other LEAs were not ascertaining the whereabouts of the detainees despite court orders.

The SHC directed the investigation officers to send letters to the jail authorities and other relevant agencies with regard to the whereabouts of the missing persons. The officers were also directed to get knowledge from the immigration department about the travel history of the missing persons.

The SHC directed the federal and provincial LEAs, JITs and other investigation officers to file progress reports with regard to the recovery of missing persons on the next hearing.