The city businessman who allegedly abducted then released a 13-year-old girl last Friday, in breach of a High Court order obtained against him the previous day, can be charged under Chapter 8:01 - section 89 of the Criminal Law Offences Act, a reliable legal source said yesterday.
Reeaz Khan, managing director of Reeaz Trading Enterprises Ltd, was last Thursday ordered by Justice BS Roy to release the teenager into the joint custody of her mother, Bibi Shameeza Hamid and maternal aunt [Hamid's sister] after the former filed habeas corpus proceedings against him.
At the time, Khan was also directed by the judge to refrain from making contact with the teenager but according to Hamid, he abducted the teenager around 1 am the following day from her aunt's home.
Stabroek News spoke with two legal sources yesterday who said that Khan could be charged under the afore- mentioned section of the Criminal Law Offences Act which stipulates: "...anyone who unlawfully takes or causes to be taken any unmarried girl being under the age of sixteen years out of the possession and against the will of her father and mother or of any other person having the lawful care and charge of her shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for two years..."
Hamid, meanwhile, told Stabroek News yesterday that contempt proceedings have been filed against and served on Khan.
Legal documents in support of the habeas corpus proceedings filed against Khan indicate that in early April, Khan had offered the teenager's mother the opportunity of allowing the teenager to participate in a 'work-study' exercise at his business establishment during the Easter vacation and Hamid had consented.
However, on the first day of the 'work-study' exercise, the teenager did not return home and when Hamid contacted Khan, according to the documents, he informed her that the teenager was in his charge and that he did not intend to let her go.
The documents further revealed that Hamid subsequently sought the assistance of the police and her daughter allegedly admitted, in the presence of law enforcement officials and others, that she had been involved in sexual relations with Khan. Additionally, the documents disclosed, a medical examination of the teenager at the Georgetown Public Hospital following her admission has confirmed that she is sexually active.
The matter was thereafter brought to the attention of the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security and the teenager was sent to the Women's Institute at Cove & John, East Coast Demerara, but Khan managed to abduct the teenager again.
Hamid told Stabroek News last Friday that she went to the Prasad's Hospital last Friday on the instructions of one of Khan's attorneys to collect her daughter but when she arrived there, Khan and her daughter were together and the city businessman reportedly refused to let the teenager go.
According to Hamid, Khan attempted to have the teenager admitted to that and a number of other private medical institutions in an apparent move to maintain uninhibited contact with the teenager.
Hamid said she was verbally abused her son assaulted and it was not until his efforts to have the teenager hospitalised failed that Khan released the teenager about half of an hour past midnight that day.
Hamid told Stabroek News that she has since lodged a report at the police station near her home but remains fearful that Khan will take her daughter again.
The original case against Khan is scheduled to come up in court on June 4.