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       KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday remanded a suspected serial rapist in police custody for five days in cases pertaining to subjecting minor girls to sexual assaults.

       The suspect, a fruit vendor, was arrested by the Defence police from Qayyumabad a day before.

       The matter came to the authorities’ attention after one of his alleged victims managed to obtain a USB drive from the suspect, took it to a video shop for the purpose of downloading music onto it. However, the shop owner detected the presence of explicit content on the drive and informed area residents, who apprehended the suspect and beat him up before handing him over to the police.

       On Friday, the investigating officer of the case produced the suspect before a judicial magistrate (South) and sought his physical custody for further interrogation.

       Suspect initially booked in four FIRs for sexual assault on five children

       He stated that the suspect was initially booked in four FIRs regarding rape of four girls and one boy. He added that Section 22 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, pertaining to child pornography, had been added to the case after police seized his mobile phone and a USB containing over a hundred explicit videos.

       The IO requested the court to grant police custody of the suspect for further interrogation and for conducting the medical examination of both the suspect and the survivors.

       After hearing the IO and examining the remand paper, the court remanded the suspect in police custody for five days and directed the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing.

       According to the prosecution, the suspect told investigators that he had moved from Abbottabad to Karachi in 2011. In 2016, he shifted to the Qayyumabad area, and started luring and trapping children around 2019. He first opened a grocery shop, and then a juice cart.

       Police have claimed to have recovered a mobile phone from his custody containing hundreds of videos filmed in his room that show graphic scenes involving children.

       The parents of the five victims registered four FIRs against the suspect.

       Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2025