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A Rawalpindi district and sessions judge on Friday extended the interim bail of two men accused of sexual assault, committing “inappropriate acts”, and filming a girl.
A third man, who is accused of filming the incident, was arrested on Thursday but was also granted interim bail by the court.
The case was registered last month when Capital Police Officer Muhammad Ahsan Younis took notice of the incident.
The first information report (FIR) was lodged with Waris Khan police station’s Station House Officer Ghazanfar Abbas as the complainant. According to the FIR, a video, which was circulated on social media, showed two men sexually assaulting a girl while a third suspect was filming the incident.
The victim was also stripped by the accused, according to Rawalpindi police spokesperson Sajjadul Hasan, although the FIR does not mention it.
The video was later posted on social media, where it was “made viral”, the FIR said.
“By making the video go viral on social media, [the suspects] hurt the feelings of the people by violating […] the chastity of the girl,” the FIR read.
The case was registered under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The two accused initially named in the FIR obtained pre-arrest bail from a lower court. Later, during the investigation, they identified the third suspect who was recording the video. He was arrested by the police on Thursday “after multiple raids”, according to the police spokesman.
The third accused was produced before the court yesterday where the police asked for his judicial remand. The defence, however, argued that the suspect should be granted bail since the offence was bailable. The court granted him bail until August 21 against a surety bond of Rs50,000.
The interim bail of the other two suspects was also extended until August 11.