A judicial magistrate on Tuesday recorded the confessional statement of a suspect in a case pertaining to the rape and murder of a six-year-old boy.
The investigation officer produced the suspect, Hamza, along with his father, uncle and brother before the judicial magistrate (South) on completion of their physical remand. He moved an application requesting the magistrate to record the suspect’s confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The IO stated that the suspect was willing to confess to the crime before the court. As per the legal procedure, the judge asked the suspect whether he was recording his statement voluntarily or he had been pressurised by someone to do so, clarifying that such a statement could be used against him during the trial.
The suspect denied being pressured and recorded his confessional statement, according to the complainant’s lawyer Arsalan Saleem Khan. The suspect confessed how he sexually assaulted and murdered the victim before stuffing his body in a gunny bag. He said that he shifted the body from one room to another before throwing it from the rooftop out of fear of being caught as police were conducting raids.
After recording his statement, the magistrate remanded him as well as other suspects in judicial custody. Initially, an FIR was lodged at the Napier police station under Section 3 (trafficking in persons) of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act of 2018 and 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of fourteen) of the PPC on the complaint of the child’s father. Later, Section 302 (murder) and 375 (rape) of the PPC were invoked against the suspect.
The body of six-year-old Wali was found stuffed in a gunny bag near his residence in the Lea Market area on Tuesday night, a day after he went missing. The tragic killing has sent shockwaves through the Lea Market neighborhood, where residents expressed grief and anger over the brutal death of the young boy. The incident has also raised concerns about the safety of children and prompted demands for swift justice.
