A Karachi district and sessions court on Monday granted the Islamabad police three-day transitory remand of anchorperson and popular YouTuber Jameel Farooqi after he was arrested for “falsely accusing” the law enforcement agency of physically and sexually assaulting PTI leader Shahbaz Gill, a private TV channel reported.
A first information report (FIR) was registered against the journalist at the Ramna police station. Farooqui was presented before Judicial Magistrate Ali Sher Chandio by investigation officer (IO) Mian Shehbaz. The official requested the court to grant permission to shift the journalist to Islamabad.
A video shared on PTI’s official Twitter showed the visibly distressed journalist handcuffed, accompanied by an Islamabad police official, at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. In the clip, Farooqui alleged that his clothes had been stripped off after which he was beaten up. “On orders of the home ministry […] just because I am speaking the truth […] they tortured me, removed my clothes and beat me. “The Islamabad police has obtained my transit remand at the moment to take me from Karachi to Islamabad,” the journalist said, adding that his family and channel were still unaware of his whereabouts.
Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for Islamabad police in a statement said that a case had been registered against Farooqui at the Ramna police station. “In his vlog, the suspect falsely accused Islamabad police of sexually and physically assaulting Gill,” the statement said, which was also carried by Radio Pakistan. The anchorperson’s allegations are a reiteration of the PTI’s claims of Gill being “sexually abused” and “tortured both mentally and physically” by investigators during the ongoing probe against him in a sedition case.
The first information report (FIR) against Farooqui was registered on Sunday under Sections 499 (defamation), 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
