2 women identify Karachi school owner as rapist in deposition

KARACHI: Two women deposed before a judicial magistrate on Tuesday that the principal/owner of a private school in Gulshan-i-Hadeed had lured them by prospects of employment at his school, raped them and also filmed the crime in order to blackmail them.

In the presence of the suspect, both the women recorded their separate statements under Section 164 (power to record statements and confessions by magistrate) of the criminal procedure code.

They also identified the suspect as the person who had repeatedly raped them.

On Sept 4, police had booked and arrested the school owner after some videos had gone viral on social media. He was remanded in police custody by a court for seven days.

Victims tell magistrate suspect assaulted them several times after job lure, filmed ordeal to blackmail them

On Tuesday, after his remand period ended, the investigating officer produced him again in court and also moved applications to record the statements of the two witnesses/victims.

Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Ramsha Navaid recorded the testimonies of both the women and also provided an opportunity to the suspect and his lawyer to cross-examine the witnesses.

The 23-year-old first victim deposed that she had visited the school in question around three months ago for a job and the suspect had asked her to come after the school timing for an interview.

She deposed that the suspect asked her to sit in his office, locked the door and forcibly assaulted her. Later, he offered her a salary of Rs25,000 and asked her join after one week.

“The suspect repeated the offence when I visited the school after a week and when I attempted to resist, he slapped me and said that it was recorded in the CCTV camera installed at his office and warned to post the same on internet,” the witness told the magistrate.

She further said that the suspect had blackmailed her and subjected her to rape on four occasions and never employed her or paid her any salary.

The second witness, who is in her mid-thirties, deposed that she had also been subjected to a sexual assault by the suspect on several occasions on the pretext of offering job. She said he also blackmailed her to post videos of the rape on social media.

Both the witnesses said that they had approached the police station to record their statements after the news of the suspect’s arrest surfaced.

Remand of suspect extended by four days

After recording their statements, the IO asked the court for an extension in the physical remand of the suspect for further investigation and to record statements of more victims/witnesses.

However, the lawyer for the suspect opposed the plea and asked the court to send his client to prison on judicial remand.

While allowing four-day extension in the police remand of the suspect, the magistrate handed the custody of the suspect to the IO with the direction to produce him on the next hearing along with a progress report.

Earlier, the police stated that there were around 45 victims and the suspect had been blackmailing them.

A case was registered against the suspect under Sections 376 (punishment of rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 25 of the Telegraph Act on behalf of the state at the Steel Town police station.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2023