Judicial Magistrate-East on Monday issued written order over the C-class challan of the police in Karachi’s teenage girl Dua Zehra’s alleged kidnapping case.
The police submitted statements of Dua, accused Zaheer and witnesses along the C-class challan.
According to the complainant’s lawyer police challan based on the report of determination of the age of the girl. The complainant has submitted an application to the Secretary Health against the medical report, which has determined the age of Dua Zehra. “The report about age is false, as Dua’s age has been below 14 years,” the counsel said.
The court in its written order said that the government lawyer has not objected over further investigation of the case. “The issue is still required to be investigated that what was the age of Dua Zehra when she left home,” the court order read. “An appropriate age required for leaving the home for one’s free will,” order read.
“The court approved the plea of the complainant for further investigation of the case,” according to the court order.
The court while ordering the health department to decide the complainant’s plea within seven days, also directed to inform the court in case of decision for constitution of a medical board.
The court also ordered the investigation officer to submit a supplementary challan after completion of further probe of the case.
In previous hearing, the investigating officer (IO), had filed a challan before the judicial magistrate, urging the court to quash the FIR in Zehra case after categorizing the case as “C-class”.
In the charge-sheet, the IO maintained that Dua Zehra, travelled from Karachi to Punjab and tied the knot with Zaheer Ahmed of her own free will. He said that no evidence was found that the girl had been abducted as the medical report confirmed Dua Zehra’s age between 16 to 17 years.
The IO removed Section-216 and Child Marriage Act against suspects in teenage girl abduction case. The challan also declared suspects, Asghar and Ghulam Mustafa, arrested in Zehra case as innocent.
