Child victim’s testimony enough to convict rapist on negative DNA, forensic reports: LHC rules

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday ruled that in the absence of a positive forensic report and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test, the sole statement of a child victim is sufficient to convict a rapist.

Justice Amjad Rafique gave these remarks as he dismissed an appeal against the conviction of a suspect, Kamran, accused of raping a six-year-old girl. The court upheld the life imprisonment handed down to him by a sessions court of Gujranwala in 2017.

A trial court of Gujranwala had sentenced life imprisonment to Kamran while acquitting Barkat Ali. Kamran worked as a school guard in Gujranwala and in 2017, he was charged with abusing a six-year-old schoolgirl in the washroom.

“It is evident that prosecution has proved the case against the appellant beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt, a standard requisite to sustain a criminal charge. There is no legitimate exception to findings arrived at by the trial court with respect to conviction and quantum of sentence awarded to Kamran, appellant, and acquittal of Barakat Ali, co-accused,” the order declared.

In the written order, the court termed the statement of the minor victim girl as admissible testimony and held that the statements of the victim of sexual abuse prove the incident with evidence beyond reasonable doubts. The court added that it was the best time to adhere to the principle of acknowledging the statement of a child victim.

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The court further noted that the minor has made a statement with innocent precision and sequence by explaining as to when, where, how, and what had happened with her.

The victim was aged six years but she exhibited noticeable maturity by stating that though her father had picked her from the school on May 12, 2017; she did not tell anything to him. Rather she went home and laid all such information to her mother, which is quite a natural and acceptable phenomenon.

The order said that the victim’s further statement that she never visited the related school after the alleged occurrence, is yet another factor that goes a long way to establish that something had gone terribly wrong with her.

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“The evidence of girl’s mother for the spontaneous declaration made to her by the victim about rape and injury is corroborated by the doctor, before whom the victim made the same statement. This composition has a support to prosecution case,” the court ruled.

The court also questioned the veracity of the report of Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) and DNA test which remained inconclusive. It observed that the absence of sperms does not mean that rape has not been committed.

“PFSA report in this case to some extent lends support to the prosecution case, however, it is observed with pain that the report is deficient in some respects, ” the judgment said.

The court said this hopeless attempt and explanation raise serious questions about the priority of examination as to regard it a routine slackness or deliberate jumps.

The court exhorted that the prosecution must attend to these aspects of the matter in every case if it feels any doubt, should immediately resort to calling the concerned expert as a witness before the court for explanation or apply to the court under the provisions of Punjab Forensic Science Agency Act, 2007 for clarification of report.