The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday reserved a verdict on a post-arrest bail petition of Usman Mirza’s accomplice, Umar Bilal Marwat, in the couple’s video case.
IHC judge Justice Tariq Mehmood Jehangiri reserved the verdict after final arguments from both sides.
The suspect’s lawyer, Sher Afzal Marwat, read out the first information report (FIR) prior to starting arguments as the court resumed hearing.
The suspect’s lawyer said that a man named Qayyum was Usman Mirza’s friend who had financial terms with the main suspect.
He said that Mirza lodged a case against Qayyum after a cheque of Rs10 million given Mirza got dishonoured.
He said that Qayyum’s wife had videos who shared them after her husband was trapped.
The petitioner’s counsel said that his client had not been mentioned in the FIR, neither he was facing extortion charges.
He said that the victim couple also did not name Umar Bilal and he could not be seen in any of the videos that have been retrieved.
The lawyer said that his client was accused by the investigation officer of receiving a bribe worth Rs100,000 from the couple.
He said that Umar Bilal was not even visible in any of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the cameras installed on every floor of the building where the incident took place.
Read Usman Mirza, co-accused sent to Adiala till Sept 10
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that pressure from social media was affecting the under-trial case, which could compromise the fair trial.
To this, Justice Jehangiri said that the decision on the petition would be made on merit.
The judge remarked that the court did not adjudicate matters while looking at social media pressure.
The victim’s lawyer, Hasan Javed Shorash, argued that his clients were not the plaintiff in the case but were part of the case. He added that the FIR of the case was registered only after the video clips went viral on social media.
When the court asked about the evidence against Umar Bilal, the victims’ lawyer said that his name was included after the girl nominated him.
The victim girl said that Umer Bilal stood by the door for around three hours while they were harassed.
When the bench asked if the accomplice’s name had been mentioned before the magistrate while recording the statement, the Investigation Officer Shafqat replied in affirmation.
The investigation officer told the court the extortion money was also recovered from Umer Bilal.
The court inquired if there were rape charges against the suspect.
The suspect’s counsel said his client was 17 kilometres away from the location of the incident.
The investigation officer said that the suspect was not visible in the video as he did not use his cell phone at that specific moment.
The court reserved the verdict on the post-arrest bail plea after arguments.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 13th, 2021.
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