Senate employee gets pre-arrest bail

Accused denies harassing woman outside bank

ISLAMABAD:

A local court on Thursday granted the pre-arrest bail to an employee of the Senate who has been booked by the police in an alleged harassment case.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ataa Rabbani granted bail to Rana Azhar Siddique, a grade-18 officer of the Senate Secretariat, in the alleged harassment case till December 31.

The Senate employee was accused of harassing a woman outside an ATM. The court granted bail to the accused against surety bonds of Rs0.5 million.

In the petition filed by the accused, it was stated that the petitioner was serving in the Senate Secretariat in grade-18 as deputy director. He said that he had nothing to do with the harassment and it was a ploy to implicate innocent people. He said that the case needed to be investigated further.

Read Official assures action over harassment of women, children

The court granted bail and issued a notice to the police, and adjourned the hearing till December 31.

Two days back, a woman posted a video on social media with a man making a video outside the ATM where she was withdrawing cash.

The woman kept talking about the man showing the video but he fled from the spot after she inquired why he was making the video.

After the video went viral on social media, the Islamabad police also took notice and registered an FIR based on the statement of the woman.

The woman said in the FIR that as she turned up at the ATM, the accused started to make the video. When she asked him about making the video, the harasser confessed to making the video and said sorry and ran away.

The woman also attempted to chase him but the accused ran away. Later, the police registered an FIR against an unknown person, who later turned out to be an employee of the Senate.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2021.

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