KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday dismissed an application seeking grant of bail to the widow of late politician and anchorperson Aamir Liaquat Hussain in a case pertaining to allegedly leaking his obscene videos on social media.

Dania Shah was booked and arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from her house in Lodhran on Dec 15.

Judicial Magistrate (East) Mukesh Kumar pronounced his order reserved after hearing arguments from the defence and prosecution on the bail plea of Ms Shah, who is currently in judicial custody.

The magistrate observed that the matter was at a premature stage of investigation, since no investigation report under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code had been filed yet.

He noted that while “no sexually explicit videos of the late lawmaker were recovered from the possession of Shah” the prosecutor claimed that all such videos had been deleted from her gadgets by the suspect.

The judge remarked that the material collected during the investigation into the matter so far apparently connected the widow with the commissioning of the alleged offence.

He stated that the suspect prima facie violated the victim’s fundamental rights to dignity, privacy and modesty, which are inalienable rights of every person and as per the complainant’s counsel, the release of Aamir Liaquat’s personal videos in public sphere was the main cause of his death.

Dua Aamir, daughter of the late TV anchor, had lodged an FIR against Dania Shah under Sections 20 (malicious code), 21 (cyberstalking) and 24 (legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information system) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2022