Trial court adjourns Islamabad couple harassment case till 25th as ‘victims’ backtrack from allegations
Zubair Qureshi
The woman complainant couple sexual harassment case, who had last week backtracked from her earlier statement accusing the primary accused Usman Mirza and his gang of torture and sexual abuse on Wednesday told a trial court she was being pressured to change her statement (of backtracking).
She also requested the court to grant her permanent exemption in the case.
The case had surfaced when a video of four persons holding a couple at gunpoint, forcing them to strip and then beating them up had gone viral on social media last year in July. When the hearing of the case resumed on Wednesday with Additional District and Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani in the chair, the girl complained that she was being pressured repeatedly to pursue the case. “I have given the statement that I don’t know anyone,” she said.
At another point in the hearing, prosecutor Rana Hasan Abbas cross-examined the male victim and asked him to narrate the background of the incident. I cannot recall the details of the incident and also don’t remember what shirt I was wearing that day,” the victim said in response to a query from the prosecutor.
At this, the public prosecutor requested the court to play the video of the incident in the courtroom. The judge granted the request. Later, Sher Afzal, counsel for one of the suspects, Marwat, urged the court to replay the footage as he sought to cross-examine the male victim, saying he wanted to see the face of the man. The video was played again at his request.
Meanwhile, the girl told the judge that she was not in the video that was circulated on social media, and also rejected allegations to have sought Rs10 million from one of the suspects Marwat.
She said police had obtained her fingerprints and signatures on a blank paper multiple times. The counsel for Marwat asked whether she had signed the papers under duress. To this, she responded: “I don’t know.”
The suspect’s lawyer told the girl that an FIA expert had declared the video genuine and also verified that the face seen and voice heard in the video was hers. In response, the girl said: “There are seven people of the same face in this world.”
At this, the lawyer wondered that even if that were true, how were the voices an exact match as well. The boy however insisted that he did not know the suspects, also stressing that he had not accepted any money to change his statement.
