Rimsha Masih’s case sent to juvenile court

A judge on Monday rejected the district administration’s decision to hold the hearing on the ‘Rimsha Masih case’ in jail and ordered the police to submit a charge sheet in the special court in accordance with the juvenile laws Rimsha Masih spent three weeks on remand in an adult jail after she was arrested on August 16 for allegedly burning pages from the Quran in a case that prompted worldwide condemnation. Police on Saturday told the court the girl was not guilty and a cleric who allegedly framed her should face trial instead. “We have received the medical report which says she is aged 14. The investigation report of her case must be submitted in a juvenile court,” a judge said on Monday. Rao Abdur Rahim, the lawyer for Rimsha’s neighbour Hammad Malik, who originally accused her, objected to the medical report, but Abbas told him he should apply to the juvenile court when it takes up the case. An official medical report has classified her as “uneducated” and aged 14, but with a mental age younger than her years. Others have said she is as young as 11 and suffers from Down’s syndrome. Earlier, Rimsha Masih had been awarded bail and flown to an undisclosed location with her family, over security concerns. The bail was awarded after it was revealed that a prayer leader of the neighbourhood mosque, Khalid Jadoon had had placed two pages of Quran with the burnt papers in order to aggravate the situation. The court has also passed the matter of animosity over the charge sheet between the investigating officer and the district attorney to the relevant court.