PESHAWAR: The police arrested a couple on Monday after the Peshawar High Court dismissed their pre-arrest bail in an adultery case.

The woman’s father had alleged that the couple had committed a crime by tying the knot as his daughter was already married and hadn’t get divorce from husband for second marriage.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, who led a single-member bench, dismissed the couple’s pre-arrest bail plea on completion of arguments by the two sides.

The court also rejected woman Kishwar Zaman’s request for cancellation of FIR lodged against her and husband by father Syed Pir Zaman Shah at the Garhi Habibullah police station in Abbottabad.

After the court pronounced the order, the woman began crying requesting she shouldn’t be handed over to police.

The officials of Garhi Habibullah police station took the couple to Abbottabad saying the two will be produced before a local magistrate today (Tuesday) for physical remand.

The police had registered FIR against the couple on Jan 17, 2014 after Syed Pir Zaman Shah formally alleged that Babar Qayyum had induced his daughter to elope with him from Abbottabad to Jhang district (Punjab).

The complainant claimed that her daughter was already married to relative Syed Rahim Shah, so she couldn’t contract second marriage until husband divorced her.

The case was registered under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code dealing with the kidnapping or inducing of woman to compel for marriage.

Lawyer for the couple, Sawar Khan, said the woman was adult and had gone to Jhang with Babar of her own free will for marriage.

He said the woman had told a local court that her stepfather wanted to sell her to an old man and that she had committed no crime by leaving home for marriage.

The lawyer claimed the woman wasn’t married before and the assertion of her father in this respect was false and misleading.

Lawyer for the complainant, Ibadur Rehman, claimed the woman was not an adult and that she was a ninth grader.

He said the woman’s husband was already married and had a son.

A woman also showed up claiming to be the wife of the man. She said her husband had not taken her permission for second marriage and that he had stolen her gold ornaments.

Additional advocate general Qaisar Shah also opposed grant of pre-arrest bail to the couple saying the court recently granted them interim pre-arrest bail but they didn’t go to the police station for cooperation in investigation.

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