Usman Mirza torture case: Court issues arrest warrants for victim couple

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court on Tuesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against the victim couple in the Islamabad harassment case after it failed to appear for a hearing, Geo News reported.

Judge Mohammad Ata Rabbani conducted the hearing of the case and expressed annoyance at the couple for their absence. Consequently, he issued a non-bailable warrant against the victims and ordered the senior superintendent of police (SSP) to produce them in court.

Meanwhile, the couple’s lawyer pleaded with the court and said that both the man and the woman are out of the city and it would take three hours for them to reach the court. The court has adjourned the hearing of the case till today (Wednesday).

Last year in July, a video surfaced on social media in which the main accused in the case, Usman Mirza, could be seen violently thrashing and harassing a young couple in a room full of other men.

Within a few hours of the video going viral, the Islamabad police took Mirza into custody and registered a first information report (FIR) in the case. Later on, seven people, including Usman Mirza, were indicted in the Islamabad couple harassment case.

Recently, the female victim of the Islamabad couple harassment case had withdrawn her statement and submitted an affidavit to deny perusing the case further. Previously, the statement of female victim of the case was recorded in front of the magistrate in which she had said Usman and the other accused had "threatened to gang-rape her if she did not have sex with her friend.