A local court in Shangla has convicted a person for the abduction and ‘marital rape’ of his minor wife and sentenced him to life imprisonment, and imposed a fine of Rs300,000 on him.
Dawn’s Umar Bacha, in his report, states that the judge convicted the accused on two counts and sentenced him under section 365-b (kidnapping) of the Pakistan Penal Code to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs100,000 and to 25 years imprisonment with a fine of Rs200,000 under section 376 (rape) of PPC.
The court acquitted seven of the convict’s family members due to a lack of evidence.
The lawyer appearing for the convict said that the victim was his client’s legal wife, and hence, he committed no offence.
However, the judge, in his judgement, observed that a close and critical reading of section 375 PPC, defining the offence of rape, made no exception to marriage.
“If the allegation of rape in marriage is ignored, yet another question is the victim’s juvenility. The victim, being just above 16 years of age, is still covered in the definition of ‘child,’ being under 18 years of age,” the verdict read.
The victim’s mother in the FIR stated that her husband died around ten years ago, and around two years ago, she arranged the Nikkah of her daughter (the victim) with the accused, but Rukhsati was yet to take place.
She had put a demand to the family of the accused to arrange separate accommodation for her daughter before formal marriage, but they declined. She alleged that on the night of the incident, the accused, along with his father and four other relatives, barged into their house and forcibly took away the victim while the complainant, her son and another daughter were beaten and tied.
In the beginning, FIR was registered for abducting the girl, but eventually, when she was recovered by police, different provisions of PPC and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act, dealing with sexual assaults and sexual abuse, were also included in it.
The girl, upon her recovery after four days, said in a statement that she was assaulted during captivity, and her medical examination also confirmed that she was subjected to sexual assault.
The court eventually found the accused guilty of the offence of the abduction of the victim and having sex without her consent.
Even though the lawyer Mian Safeer said it was the first-ever conviction in a case of ‘marital rape’ after amendments in 2021 but a man in Karachi was sentenced to three years in jail after he was found guilty of having non-consensual sex with his wife earlier in the year on January 20.
Read More: First ever conviction on Marital Rape opening new doors of discussion: A religious and legal context
