ISLAMABAD: A hearing based on the suo motu notice in the rape and murder case of Mardan’s Aasma, a four-year-old minor girl, is slated to commence early morning today (Tuesday).
The case will be heard by a three-member bench — comprising Justices Saqib Nasir, Umarata Bandiyal, and Ijazul Ahsan — with the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) presiding over it.
The court has summoned Advocate-General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), as well as the province’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), to appear at today’s hearing.
It has been two weeks since January 13, when Aasma was reported missing from the Gujjar Garhi area in Mardan and recovered dead the next day from the nearby sugarcane fields. The murderer, however, remains at large.
The Friday after the incident, the CJP took a suo motu notice of Aasma’s murder after DNA test confirmed the child was raped before she was killed.
Dr Ashraf Tahir — the Director-General of the Punjab Forensic Science Agency — said the DNA tests conducted on the samples obtained from the deceased’s body and the crime scene prove that the victim was sexually assaulted before her death.
One person’s DNA was found on Aasma’s body confirming the rape, the official added, noting that the next stage in the investigation would be to match the DNA samples taken from around 200 people in the case to track down the suspect.
Meanwhile, the police also submitted its investigation report pertaining to the case to the Supreme Court.
