The Sindh High Court has reopened the rape case of a woman who was sexually and physically assaulted at the Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum on March 15, 2008.
A trial court had acquitted three men in the case over ‘lack of evidence’ on April 6, 2013. The woman challenged their acquittal and her request has been approved by the court.
A bench, headed by Justice SalahuddinPanhwar, remanded on Friday the case to the trial court for rewriting the judgement after hearing the parties within three months.
The survivor was 18 years when she was gang-raped inside the mausoleum by its employees. She had come from Lodhran to Karachi with her family.
They arrived at the mausoleum in a bus, and she and her husband decided to go in before others. The husband then went back to get others and asked her to wait.
During this time, a power breakdown occurred and the woman was kidnapped by three men.
She said that they took her to a room, forced her to drink wine and they took turns to rape her.
Her father filed a case at the Brigade police station and accused the suspects of kidnapping her and then raping her.
Khadim Hussain, the mausoleum’s former security guard, Accountant Mazar Raja Arif, and Assistant to Resident Engineer MazarArifAnsar were arrested after the DNA report confirmed their involvement.
Former district and sessions Judge Nadeem Ahmed Khan acquitted them and claimed that the prosecution presented evidence with forgeries and contractions.
The testimony of the rape survivor, her husband and father was rejected. The court even said that those who accuse others of zina must produce four witnesses to support their accusation.
