Lahore court ends hearing of Chadhar and his wife’s bail pleas
A court in Pakistan’s Lahore has ended consideration of pleas by PML-N provincial assembly member Saqib Chadhar and his wife for interim pre-arrest bail. The couple withdrew their applications after an investigator said their arrest was not required at this stage of the investigation, Dawn reports.
Investigators’ position
Hassan Sajjad Naqvi, the new investigator from Pakistan’s National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, told the court that the situation in the investigation had changed and that there was currently no need to detain the suspects.
At a previous hearing on July 28, then-investigator Najam Bajwa told the court that Chadhar had been found guilty as a result of the investigation. At the same time, according to the summons, the suspects requested a reinvestigation, citing new defence evidence.
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Actress Momina Iqbal was separately summoned to the investigator on September 1 to record her statement regarding the new materials. She was also present in court when the investigator announced the change in the investigation’s position.
Case circumstances
In May, Iqbal said on social media that she had faced online harassment, cyberbullying and death threats for a long time. She alleged that the PML-N lawmaker had threatened her and her fiancé by phone and had allegedly begun blackmailing her after she rejected his marriage proposal.
In her statement to police, Iqbal also said that Chadhar had allegedly sent threatening messages to her sister; she mentioned WhatsApp messages and video calls. On June 4, the NCCIA registered a case based on her complaint under provisions of the cybercrime law and the Pakistan Penal Code, including those concerning unauthorized access to and transmission of data, cyberstalking and criminal intimidation.
