LAHORE, July 11: Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif of the LHC on Wednesday rejected the post-arrest bail of a blasphemy accused. “It’s a serious case as the accused himself has admitted that he knew what he was doing and did not act inadvertently,” the court observed while dismissing the plea of Amanat Masih of Nabipur Virkan, Sheikhupura.

The accused said he had burnt the pages of the Holy Quran on the advice of Pir Liaqat Ali to get back his wife who had eloped with another person.

Besides a wazeefa or mantra, the Pir had also given him an amulet to bury it in his house, the accused said.

The first information report registered on March 23, 2007, states Maulvi Mehmood and others were sitting in the village mosque after Friday prayers when Khawar Sajjad Virk approached them with some torn pages, apparently of the Holy Quran. He said that such more pages were also lying in the village bazaar. At this, they went to the bazaar and saw torn and partly burnt pages and the cover of a book titled ‘Fiqri Majmooa Wazaif by Allama Alaim Fiqri’ outside the house of the accused.

When they asked the accused about pages, the accused told them he had done it on his Pir’s direction. On his disclosure, the people also dug out the amulet under the cupboard, the FIR added.

The incident was reported to police, which arrested the accused and registered a case. The Ferozewala additional sessions judge dismissed his bail plea.

The defence counsel said the accused was implicated in the case at the behest of Rakha Masih, a servant of the accused, and prayed for his post-arrest bail until the decision of the case. The court rejected the plea.