KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued notices to the respondents on an appeal filed against their acquittal in a 2007 gang rape case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto directed the respondents/ acquittedpersonstoappearbefore it on March 15.

The counsel for appellant argued that the appeal had been pending since 2010 as the respondents had not been appearing in court and one of them had passed away during the period.

A district and sessions court in Karachi had acquitted four accused, including a man and son, in May 2010 in the abduction and gang rape of a13-year-old girl in January 2007 in her native village located in Dadu district.

The victim through her counsel had filed an appeal in the SHC against the trial court`s order and prayed for setting it aside.

According to the prosecution, the accused persons kidnapped the victim on Jan 10, 2007 when she had visited the shop of one of the accused in her village of Mehar taluka in Dadu district to buy some articles. He and the other accused sprinkled some substance on her, causing her to become unconscious. They detained her for three days and subjected her to gang rape several times, it added.

Initially, the case was tried in the sessions court of Dadu but later the high court transferred it to the district and sessions court (south) in Karachi on the request of the victim`s father.