The case of Khalid Jadoon Chishti, the cleric accused of tampering with evidence in Rimsha Masih case to press for stronger blasphemy allegations against her, took a new turn on Monday when three witnesses in the case backtracked from their preliminary statements.
As District and Sessions Judge Raja Jawad Abbas resumed the hearing of case against the cleric, the three witnesses said that they had been forced by the police to give statements against the cleric.
Three witnesses including Hafiz Zubair, Khurram Shahzad and Danish Ahmed submitted their affidavits before the court and contended that they had nothing to do with their previous statements recorded before the police because the investigating officer had forced them to testify against Chishti.
Last month, Ramna Police Station had recorded the statements of the three witnesses who endorsed the testimony recorded by Hafiz Zubair, the original witness who had told a magistrate that the cleric had tampered with the evidence against Rimsha by adding two pages of the Holy Quran in the burnt pages of the Noorani Qaeda allegedly burnt by Rimsha.
In their affidavits on Monday, the three witnesses claimed that they had not seen the cleric adding Quranic pages to the evidence against Rimsha.
After their statements, the judge issued notices to Investigating Officer Munir Jaffri, District Attorney Mehfooz Paracha, and complainant Hammad Malik, while adjourning the case until October 3. On September 22, the police said that the cleric was guilty of tampering evidence against Rimsha, while adding that there was no proof against the juvenile Christian girl. The cleric has been in prison for the last one month.
Meanwhile, the chief justice of Islamabad High Court (IHC) stayed the trial court proceedings against Rimsha until October 17. The same bench had delayed trial court proceedings against Rimsha until October 1 on September 28.
During the course of hearing, the complainant’s counsel did not appear before the court due to his personal engagement. The court extended the stay and adjourned the hearing until October17. Petitioner’s counsel Abdul Hameed Rana had moved a petition, seeking cancellation of the FIR registered against Rimsha on August 16.
He told the court that the police had registered a case against Rimsha under Section 295-B at the behest of Hammad Malik, a resident of Mera Jaffer area. The court had granted a bail to Rimsha against two surety bonds of Rs 500,000 each on September 7. She was flown in a helicopter to an undisclosed location after her release from the jail. She was arrested on August 16 for allegedly burning the pages of Holy Quran at Mehra Jaffar, a suburb of the federal capital.