Two negligent cops suspended in six-year-old’s rape-murder case

The SHO and the duty officer of the Zaman Town police station were on Thursday suspended for negligence in the case of a six-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Korangi.

Police have registered the FIR of the case under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), besides including other relevant charges against the unidentified culprit. They have also detained half a dozen neighbours of the minor and collected the suspects’ DNA samples.

Officials said they are waiting for the DNA test reports to help their investigation. They have also drawn a sketch of the suspect with the help of the neighbours. The girl’s DNA samples have been sent to the laboratory at the University of Karachi to match against the suspects’ samples.

DSP leads probe

After registering the FIR against the minor’s kidnap, rape and murder, with the inclusion of Section 7 of the ATA, a DSP has been tasked with leading the investigation of the case. “A multi-directional probe is under way based on the statements of the witnesses, the family and the other locals,” East Zone police chief DIG Saqib Ismail Memon told The News.

“Several suspects have been taken into custody and are being interrogated. Technical data is also being analysed. A dedicated team has been formed for the investigation.” DIG Memon said DNA samples collected from the minor’s body have been sent to the KU lab, adding that the SHO and the duty officer of the Zaman Town police station have been suspended for negligence.

Father’s statement

According to the police statement of the girl’s father, he has been living in the locality for the past decade and is employed in the private sector. “I’m a father of three daughters and a son. My daughters went outside the house to play following a power outage in the area at around 10:15pm on Tuesday night.”

He said that two of his daughters later returned home, but when the third did not return by 10:45pm, he and some of his neighbours started searching for her. They received information of a girl’s body in a rubbish dump at 6am on Wednesday. He said that someone had kidnapped his daughter, raped her and then killed her.

Broken neck

The six-year-old girl’s body was found in a rubbish dump located along Ghous Pak Road in Korangi and taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where her post-mortem examination showed that she was not only raped but also beaten up, as her neck was found broken.

The minor’s family said she had left the house on Tuesday night to play in the street because of electricity load-shedding in their locality, but then she had gone missing. The family claimed that they had reported the incident immediately, accusing the police of not conducting a search during the night.

They lamented that several such incidents have occurred across the country and parents have lost their daughters because the relevant authorities, particularly the police, have failed to take immediate action.

They said their daughter would have been with them as well if the police had taken immediate action. The girl was the eldest among three sisters. Her family works at a local factory. The neighbours claimed that they had found the body of the girl, saying that the police had failed to do even that. SP Shahnawaz Chachar, however, claimed that the police were informed about the missing girl after 12:30am.

PTI demands justice

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders on Thursday visited the house of six-year-old girl who was killed after being raped in the Korangi area, and offered their condolences, adds our correspondent.

The girl, who had gone missing in Zaman Town, was found murdered after being subjected to rape, police officials said on Wednesday. The child's body was found in a garbage dump near her residence after a search of nearly eight hours

PTI Karachi President and MPA Khurram Sher Zaman, MNAs from the Korangi district Faheem Khan and Akram Cheema listened to the family’s grievances and assured them that the PTI would stand by them until the killer was arrested and the girl's family received justice.

“We have come here on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan to offer condolences to the family of the girl,” Zaman told the family. “It is unfortunate that despite the passage of two days, no representative of the provincial government reached here and offered condolences to the family of the abused girl,” he said. “If the chief minister and other ministers of Sindh have finished politics and Kashmir elections, then they should visit the girl’s family.” The PTI leader said the victim’s family had told them that no action had been taken by the police even after the passage of six hours of the incident.

“We demand from all the top officials, including the chief minister, to expedite the investigation into the incident,” he said. “It is the responsibility of the provincial government and the police to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.”

Zaman said it was not the first case of child abuse, as at least five similar incidents had been reported in this area. He said that the PTI would stand by the grieving family till justice was served. “Our party leaders and lawyers are ready to help the family in any way possible.”