ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of an accused in the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) rape case.

On the other hand, the university’s administration terminated the services of associate professor Dr Mohammad Mushtaq of Shariah Academy over misconduct.

According to the counsel for Dr Mushtaq, IIUI dismissed him from service as he highlighted the rape case. However, the sources in the university said that Dr Mushtaq was terminated over his negligent behaviour.

The IHC single member bench of Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri dismissed the pre-arrest bail application of IIUI’s student Ibrahim Khan who was nominated in the FIR registered on June 24 on the complaint lodged by IIUI security supervisor Shaukat Mehmood Abbasi at the Sabzi Mandi police station under section 377 of Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the FIR, the 24-year-old man was brought to the university by a student on June 18. Later, the student called another student and they raped him.

It said a security guard of the university spotted the man when he came out of the hostel room and asked him for identification.

According to the court documents, the accused brought him on a motorcycle from a hotel of G-9 to the university on the pretext of providing him admission.

The man was taken to a room of hostel where he was raped.

Later, the main accused Ibrahim Khan gave him life threats by pointing a gun towards him besides drugging him.

The accused then handed him over to the security guards directing them to throw the victim in a nullah.

The security supervisor of the university took the victim to a hospital and got some blank documents signed from him, on which they later wrote that the victim did not want to get himself medically examined.

The police collected the evidence of Call Data Record from the mobile phone of the accused, which revealed that Ibrahim Khan had called the victim on the day of occurrence of the crime.

Police have also collected footage and pictures recorded through CCTV cameras of the university, where it can be clearly seen that the accused is brining the victim to the university on a motorcycle and later the victim was lying unconscious on the floor of the hostel at 4am.

Khan’s counsel told the court that his client was innocent that was why the victim did not want to initiate any legal proceedings.

He said the case was based on hearsay evidence. Besides, there was no medico-legal report in the case and above all the FIR was registered after an inordinate delay.

He said basically the accused had become a victim of rivalry of some students and teachers.

The state counsel, assisted by counsel for the IIUI, told the court the accused had committed a heinous crime and was nominated in the FIR. Besides, the victim has also made statement under Section 161 CrPC recorded by the police.

The court observed that “there can be no escape from the fact that petitioner /accused is nominated in the FIR as well as in the statement of victim recorded by the police under Section 161 of Criminal Procedure Code…custody of the petitioner/accused is required for the purpose of recovery and investigation.

“There is sufficient evidence available on record to connect the petitioner /accused with the commission of crime.” Subsequently, the court dismissed the bail petition.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021