ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nisar, while hearing the rape and murder case of four-year-old Aasma on Tuesday, reprimanded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) police over their inability to nab the culprit behind Aasma’s murder.
CJP, during the hearing, remarked that the failure to arrest the culprit in the murder and rape of minor Aasma shows the incompetence of the provincial police force.
The case is being heard by a bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Saqib Nasir, Justices Umar Ata Bandial and Ijazul Ahsan.
The court had summoned Advocate-General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as the province’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) to appear at the Tuesday’s hearing and when the KP IG did not appear before the court, CJP questioned his absence.
During the hearing, the Deputy Inspector-General of KP informed the Supreme Court that the evidence collected from the site of the crime was submitted to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency and he expects to be provided with the forensic report on Tuesday. He added that further probe can be carried out once the complete report is received by the KP police.
The court adjourned the hearing until February 6.
On Friday, the CJP took suo motu notice of Aasma’s murder. According to Punjab Forensic Science Agency Director General (DG) Dr Ashraf Tahir, DNA tests confirm that Aasma was sexually assaulted by one person before her murder.
The four-year-old went missing from the Gujjar Garhi area on January 13 and was found dead in a sugarcane field the next day at 3pm after search efforts by the police and family. The police joined the family’s search after being informed of the incident at 9pm on January 13.
After the body was found, an FIR [First Information Report] was registered and Mardan RPO and DPO visited Aasma’s family on January 14 to personally record details of the incident.
The IG said that an investigation team headed by the Mardan DPO was formed to probe into the case, and help from the counter-terrorism department was also utilised