Cleric Aziz confesses to molesting student

Also admits student was forced to not disseminate video, threatened with consequences

LAHORE:

Cleric Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman, who was arrested for molesting his seminary student, confessed to the crime on Monday.

In his confessional statement, the cleric said, “The video of molestation is of me; I made a mistake and I'm embarrassed about it.”

He further stated that the “student videotaped the occurrence out of my knowledge,” adding, “When I found out [about the video] I told him to not disseminate it.”

“He made the video viral despite the fact I had warned him about it. After it went viral, my sons called him out and threatened him [with consequences]," the cleric added.

Meanwhile, a local court handed Mufti Azizur Rehman over to Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) on four-day physical remand.

Earlier, the CIA produced the accused before Judicial Magistrate Rana Arshad Ali, at Cantt courts.
The investigation officer requested the court for granting physical remand of the accused for investigations.
The court, allowing the request, handed over the accused to the CIA on a four-day physical remand and directed for carrying out his DNA test and medical check-up.

The court also directed the CIA to produce him on expiry of the remand term.

The North Cantonment police registered a case against Mufti Rehman for sexually assaulting one of his students after a harrowing video clip of him was widely shared on social media.

On Sunday, Punjab police arrested the cleric for molesting his student. The 70-year-old was booked after a video of him sexually assaulting the student went viral on social media platforms.

After several botched attempts, Lahore police arrested Mufti Aziz.

The cleric had been on the run after being booked on sexual assault charges. The charges came after the assault survivor released footage of the cleric molesting him.

On June 16, the police registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the man on the survivor’s complaint.

The alleged molester and his sons had reportedly threatened to kill the survivor.

Investigation police arrested two of the cleric’s sons Ateeq from Kahna and Altaf from Laki Marwat. Raids were underway to nab the suspect’s third son Lateef and his friend Abdullah.

The complainant stated in the FIR that the cleric had earlier blamed the victim for letting another student take his exam.

He added that the suspect offered to "pass me in the exams in exchange for sexual favours.”