LAHORE: The Supreme Court Saturday ordered exhumation of the body of a minor girl murdered after rape last week in Jaranwala.
During hearing of a suo motu case at the Lahore Registry, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar directed the medical superintendent of the Allied Hospital Faisalabad to again conduct post-mortem on the body. The apex court ordered the prosecutor general to submit a report pertaining to case investigation by police by the next hearing of the case along with the forensic report of the deceased’s samples.
During the proceedings, the CJP expressed concern over the slow pace of the investigation. Upon this, Inspector General of Police Punjab Arif Nawaz Khan assured the court that investigation was being conducted from different angles.
On April 1, the seven-year-old minor girl was reported to have been kidnapped and later in the day her bruised body was recovered from the fields. Her body was handed over to the bereaved after post-mortem and laid to rest the same day. The post-mortem report confirmed that she was raped.
After the incident, Jaranwala had witnessed a shutter-down strike as enraged protestors took to the streets because the local police was unable to arrest the suspects involved in the rape and murder.
The CJP had taken notice of the incident after mother of the seven-year-old requested the top judge to intervene.
Published in Daily Times, April 8th 2018.
