ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed the post-arrest bail petition of three men charged with raping a girl, recording her objectionable videos and blackmailing her.

Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz dismissed the petition as the prosecution expressed apprehension that the accused may tamper with the record if set free.

The FIR dated Nov 15, 2021, was registered against Subhan Khalid alias Faisal, Rizwan Ali and Zeeshan Altaf under various sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) and the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the police station of the FIA Cyber Crime Reporting Centre, Islamabad.

The FIR stated that the accused created fake WhatsApp account(s) and through the accounts lured the victim to a house located at Chak Beli Mor in Rawalpindi and sexually assaulted her. They also recorded, stored and further transmitted the objectionable pictures and videos of the victim and then harassed, blackmailed, threatened and intimidated her for extortion of money.

But the counsel for the petitioners submitted that his clients were innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. Moreover, compromise has been made between the parties, adding the petitioners were behind bars for the last two months and challan had not been submitted to date.

Investigation has been completed and petitioners are no longer required, the counsel said.

On the other hand, an assistant attorney general contested the contentions of the counsel for the petitioners. He said mobile phones were recovered from the possession of Subhan Khalid and Rizwan Ali whereas the objectionable video was recovered from the accused.

He expressed apprehension that there is a possibility that the suspects may commit the same offence once again if released on bail and tamper with evidence.

The court observed that the offence under Section 376 (rape) has also been added to the FIR which was punishable by death or imprisonment of not less than 10 years or more than 25 years.

The court observed that the accused persons had specifically been nominated in the FIR and their mobile sets with the Whatsapp accounts and SIM had been recovered with the objectionable contents.

Subsequently, the court dismissed the petition.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2022