LAHORE: A judicial magistrate at district courts on Monday extended the physical remand of anchorperson Orya Maqbool Jan for four more days in a cybercrime case pertaining to alleged hate speech against the top judge of the country.

A team of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) presented the anchorperson, who is known for his misogynistic remarks, before the magistrate on expiry of his previous four-day remand.

The investigating officer (IO) sought further custody of the suspect to complete the probe and to get him confronted with other suspects against whom summons had been issued by the agency. He said the agency recovered a lot of material from the suspect’s social media accounts, including a WhatsApp group in which activities against high-ranking state officials were observed.

The IO said the suspect also generated propaganda against the state.

He also presented two technical reports about analysis of mobile phones of the suspect to substantiate his request.

On the other hand, Mr Jan himself made a submission before the magistrate, saying he was only arrested on the basis of his views. He said none of his social media posts was tantamount to glorification of any offence or hate speech, claiming he was rather making a “fair comment” on a judgement issued by the Supreme Court.

Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq argued on behalf of the anchorperson that as none of the offences was relevant to the case against his client, he should be discharged from it.

Duty Magistrate Hamoodur Rehman Nasir noted that the suspect was nominated in the FIR with specific allegations, along with necessary proof in the form of social media posts, videos etc. He observed that even the suspect did not deny making the social media posts and videos placed by the IO on record.

The magistrate said the progress in the investigation was evident during the previous remand of the suspect.

“In order to complete the investigation, further physical remand of four days is granted with clear direction to show substantial progress by all means,” the magistrate said in his handwritten order.

The magistrate also directed the IO to address a complaint by the anchorperson about being detained in a small lock-up under unbearable conditions. The IO was also directed to produce the suspect again on Aug 30.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024