According to the Police investigation, Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman has been found guilty of raping students of madrassah in Lahore. The bail plea of the cleric was heard by Judicial Magistrate Rana Arshad at the Cantt Court on Tuesday (7th September).
The clergyman was found guilty of the offense based on the case record and the police report presented in court. According to the investigation officer, the bail request of the cleric should be rejected.
Magistrate Arshad called both the suspect’s and the victim’s lawyers for arguments and deferred the case until September 10.
According to the lawyer of Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman, the accusations in the FIR against the cleric are baseless which is why the pre-arrest bail of his client should be approved.
The cleric previously alleged that the crime video was edited and associated with him. He requested the FIA and Punjab Forensic Department conduct a forensic assessment of the clip.
The Case
Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman was charged on the 16th of June when videos of him forcing himself on students went viral. The man (who will not be named for security purposes) registered an FIR against the cleric at North Cantt Police Station in Lahore. The main claimed to be a student of Jamia Manzoorul Islamia since 2013.
Mufti Aziz, the Nigran (caretaker), during the Darjah-e-Rabia (grade four) exam, accused me and another guy of putting someone else in our place for the exam and barred me from taking the Wifaqul Madaris exam for three years.
The student requested Mufti Aziz to rethink his decision and he said he would only do so if the student engages with Mufti Aziz sexually. Furthermore, the student said that this is how I became a victim of Mufti Aziz. The Mufti promised the student to remove him from the ban and to pass him in the Wifaqul Madaris exam.”
The student said that he was constantly blackmailed and harassed every Friday for three years. The administration of the madrassa also refused to believe the student as they claimed that Mufti was a religious and pious man which only means that the student is lying.
The student had no choice but to secretly film the actions of the Mufti, so he started to make secret videos to collect evidence. He later presented the evidence to Wifaqul Madari Nazim-e-Aala Hanif Jalandhary.
The student told the police that when Mufti found out about the secret videos, he threatened to kill the student.
In a video statement, Mufti Aziz disputed the accusation of sexual assault and said that he was intoxicated by his student before being filmed. The cleric alleged that the tapes were part of a plot to depose him from Jamia Manzoorul Islamia in Lahore.
