PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has rejected the bail petition of a man arrested on the charges of sexually assaulting an Afghan woman, recording her “objectionable” videos and keeping her minor daughter in illegal confinement.

During the hearing into the petition, Justice Sahibzada Asadullah of a single-member bench observed that a tentative assessment of the records showed that suspect Naseem Khan was directly charged in the case and the police recovered the minor girl in question from his personal premises.

“Circumstances of the case have left no ambiguity that the petitioner could not succeed in making out a case for indulgence of this court to release him on bail,” the judge declared.

The petitioner was named in an FIR registered at the Paharipura police station on March 7, 2023, under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 376 (rape), 344 (wrongful confinement for 10 or more days) and 109 (punishment for abetment), the KP Child Protection and Welfare Act’s Section 37 (violence against children), and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act’s sections 22 and 23.

The complainant, an Afghan national, had complained to the police that she had formed a friendship with the suspect on mobile phone and was invited by him to visit Pakistan.

She added that she along with her four-year-old daughter reached Peshawar on Jan 20 and was taken by the suspect to the house of his brother-in-law.

The woman alleged that the suspect kept her in the house for 20 days and sexually assaulted her multiple times and even recorded her “objectionable” videos.

She insisted that the suspect later handed her over to his brother, Abdul Hadi, and asked him to take her to Afghanistan, whereas her daughter was kept by him.

The woman added that the suspect asked her to bring her sister to him to claim custody of her daughter.

She said that when she reached Afghanistan, the suspect sent her the videos of her daughter’s torture by the mobile application WhatsApp.

The complainant alleged that the suspect also demanded a huge sum of money from her for not uploading her objectionable videos on social media.

Lawyer Zakir Hussain appeared before the court for the petitioner and contended that after initial investigation, the local police raided a house on March 10 and arrested the suspect and recovered the minor girl.

He insisted that his client was falsely implicated in the case.

The counsel argued that two of the co-accused in the case, including the petitioner’s brother, had already been released on bail, so the court should grant bail to his client as well.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2023