DADU: Police on Wednesday registered an FIR under Section 506, 376 PPC against Sehwan’s civil judge on a complaint lodged by a woman that the judge had subjected her to rape in his chamber’s lavatory when police produced her and her husband before him. The woman had married of her free will.

The alleged rape victim stated in the FIR lodged at Sehwan town police station that after she had eloped with her husband on Jan 12 and came to Sehwan, the police picked them up and produced them in the court of civil judge the following day on Jan 13.

She said the civil judge asked her father, relatives and police officials to leave the courtroom and let him talk to the woman alone. As soon as the courtroom emptied the judge asked her with whom she wanted to go and she replied she wanted to live with her husband.

The woman claimed that thereafter the judge made sexual advances towards her. She said that she kept refusing his unwanted advances but he ignored her entreaties and raped her in the chamber’s lavatory. The judge threatened her not to disclose the incident to anyone and then came out in the court. He called her father and told her that his daughter did not want to go with him and directed police to let the girl go where she wanted, she said.

She said that she told everything to her husband and then they decided to report it to police and the SHO recorded her statement.

Police seek permission to probe judge

HYDERABAD: Jamshoro senior superintendent of police on Wednesday sought permission from Sindh High Court to conduct investigation into charges of sexual assault against the Sehwan civil judge, requesting the court to advise the suspended judge to join investigation in the FIR lodged against him by the rape victim.

Police approached registrar of Sindh High Court to permit them to hold investigation into the FIR lodged at Sehwan police station on Jan 22.

The SHC registrar was informed that the victim was examined by a medico-legal officer in Syed Abdullah Shah Institute of Medical Sciences in Sehwan on Jan 14 and samples had been sent to Karachi for chemical examination on Jan 20.

The registrar was informed that police had preserved clothes worn by the alleged victim at the time of her statement before the judge for DNA profiling and had sought necessary permission for initiating investigation into the FIR and record statement of the suspected perpetrator and the staff, who were present in the court that day.

Police requested the registrar to advise the suspended judge to get his DNA profiling test done to clarify his position.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2020