Seminary principal granted bail in ‘molestation’ case

Court issued release orders of Mufti Shahnawaz after JIT cleared him of rape charges

RAWALPINDI:

An additional district and sessions court on Thursday approved the bail of a religious seminary principal accused of sexually assaulting and torturing a 14-year-old female student at Jamia Tuba Ziaul-Binat in the Pirwadhai area and ordered to release him from Adiala Jail.

The court ruled that the polygraph report of Mufti Shahnawaz was tested negative while the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) also declared him innocent in the investigation.

The court said that prima facie, there was no evidence against Shahnawaz in the case and ordered to release him against bail bonds of Rs0.1 million.

The suspect submitted the bail bonds instantly after which he was set free in light of the court orders.

The JIT informed the court that the forensic laboratory test did not find Mufti Shahnawaz and female teacher Ishrat Hanif guilty.

The defendant’s lawyer Talat Mehmood Zaidi said that the allegations of the student and her mother have been proved fallacious.

He said that the forensic report also proved that the victim was not intoxicated, while the molestation charges also could not be ascertained in the medical report.

The counsel further stated that the victim’s family failed to provide the JIT with the plaintiff’s clothes – which she was wearing at the time of the alleged molestation – for a DNA test.

He added that there were contradictions in her statements and that she was unable to name the person who brought her the tea that rendered her unconscious on the day the crime was committed.

Moreover, the lawyer said that accusations that the student was being harassed for the past five months were also unfound.

He said 100 female students and 11 teachers of the seminary testified the innocence of the suspects.

After being released from jail, where he spent over two months, Mufti Shahnawaz said he got justice from the independent court.

He said that the allegation against him was a conspiracy to keep female students away from religious seminaries, adding that he may consider filing a defamation case against the plaintiff.

Shahnawaz said that his daughters study in the same institution and his wife is the principal of the religious section. Notably, some 16 students were enrolled in the religious seminary during the past two months, while the victim and her mother did not attend the bail hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2021.