FIA allowed to grill Dania Shah in jail as physical remand plea denied

A Karachi court rejected on Saturday the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) request for grant of physical remand of Syeda Dania Shah, widow of late televangelist and politician Aamir Liaquat Hussain, in a case pertaining to allegedly leaking his indecent video.

However, the court allowed the FIA’s investigating officer to interrogate her inside jail in the presence of a prison official.

Shah has been booked by the agency for allegedly recording and leaking Hussain’s obscene video with an intention to humiliate him.

She was arrested by the FIA from her house in Lodhran district of Punjab on Thursday and brought to Karachi next day so she can be produced before the relevant court.

On Saturday, the investigating officer, Arfa Saeed, produced the accused before Judicial Magistrate (East) Sheikh Abbas Mehdi and pleaded that her custody be handed over to the FIA for interrogation and completion of investigation. On the other hand, the counsel for the accused opposed the request for grant of her physical remand.

Denying the allegations leveled against her, Shah claimed before the court that she was being framed for property. The IO placed on record the video in question in a USB.

After hearing both sides, the magistrate observed the record shows that the obscene videos/pictures of late Aamir Liaquat had already been secured and sent to a lab for forensic examination. Therefore, he rejected the FIA plea for grant of physical remand of the accused but allowed the IO to investigate her on the jail premises in the presence of a prison official, from Dec 17 till Dec 19. If need be, the judge said the investigating officer can approach the court for seeking her custody.

He said the accused was arrested on Dec 15 from Lodhran, however, neither her transit remand was sought nor did the IO produce her before the court within 24 hours as required under Section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) read with Section 61 of the CrPC and Article 10(2) of the country’s constitution. Hence, he issued a show-cause notice to the IO to explain as to why legal action may not be taken against her in this regard.

On Oct 10, the FIA registered an FIR under sections 20, 21 and 24 of the PECA Ordinance 2016 against Hussain’s third wife on the complaint of his daughter Dua Aamir. Shah had filed for divorce in May this year after developing differences with the lawmaker, a month before his death in June.

The complainant alleged that Dania made an indecent video of her father and shared it on social media, adding, “my father Amir Liaquat died on June 9 this year due to his third wife. She made an absence video of my father and made it viral on social media, which caused serious stress and depression to my father, and for the reason he died.”

The FIR said that during the course of the inquiry, the FIA recorded a statement of the complainant, and collected evidences provided by the complainant and material available on social media.

“It came on record that Dania Bibi, daughter of Malik Mukhtiar Ahmed, being the third wife of deceased Aamir Liaquat, recorded his absence videos with the intention to use them to humiliate him. The interview of Dania Shah on May 8, 2022, available on social media reflects that she had intentions to display such absence videos and subsequently she transmitted these videos publically through social media on May 11, 2022, and onward with false facts in respect of Aamir Liaquat,” it read.

“Shah also accepted her criminal act publically in different interviews available at different links. Prima facie it is established that Dania made sexually explicit videos of her husband and transmitted the same publically to create hatred against his modesty that resulted in fear of violence and distress in the mind of deceased.”