PM takes notice of viral sex assault video

Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the incident wherein a couple was stripped and assaulted by four men in a 'guest house' in Islamabad. He directed Inspector General of Police Qazi Jamilur Rehman to bring the suspects to justice over a phone call on Thursday, sources reported.

In another development, the man from the video that was harassed also recorded his statement. He informed that the prime suspect, Usman Mirza, was blackmailing him and demanding to bring the woman to him.

The offenders will be produced in a local court on Friday for further remand.

The police have also obtained four-day physical remand of Qayyum Butt, the fourth accused in the video-viral case, after producing him in the sessions court in Islamabad on Thursday.

The investigation officer (IO) requested a week-long physical remand for recovering indecent videos and mobile phones from him. However, the court awarded a four-day remand of the suspect and directed to produce him in court on July 12.

Read Twitter livid over viral video of man stripping, harassing couple

The case has been registered against the suspects under Section 354-A (assaulting and stripping a woman of her clothes), Section 506 (criminal intimidation), Section 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and Section 509 (sexual harassment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

It has come to light that a case was registered at the Sihala police station against the suspects on April 30.

Owing to the influence of Usman Mirza and his accomplices, the Sihala police had removed sections of an alleged robbery and included those pertaining to attack and hurling threats to benefit the suspects.

The plaintiff Ahsan Mehmood had accused Usman Mirza and his accomplices that the armed suspects attacked him and snatched two mobile phones, one DVR, and a PRO mobile phone. He told The Express Tribune that the suspects owed Rs1.5 million to the complainant.

He said that Mirza attacked him with 15 armed men and damaged his property and fled with the aforementioned items after which a first information report (FIR) was registered against them, following which they obtained bail from a sessions court.

Mehmood said he challenged the decision of the sessions court in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and also raised questions on the alleged collusion of the police. However, he expressed satisfaction that the suspects were now in the grip of the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2021.