Videogate suspect Nasir Janjua arrested after court rejects bail plea

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ISLAMABAD: Nasir Janjua, the prime suspect in judge Arshad Malik video scandal case, was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) along with co-accused Khurram Yousaf on Monday.

A cybercrime court rejected the bail pleas of the suspects who were taken into custody from the court premises. The investigation report submitted in the Supreme Court (SC) was presented as both suspects had appeared before the court.

Citing the FIA report, Janjua’s counsel said that his client had no link with the video as Nasir Butt, the other suspect, had devised the plan to record the footage.

“No allegations have been leveled against my client in the report,” the defense counsel maintained.

The lawyer further added that no evidence has been submitted against the accused apart from his nomination in the case by the plaintiff.

The defence lawyer also told the court that Yousuf was 66 years old and was a heart patient.

The court dismissed the bail pleas of both suspects, following which they were arrested by the FIA. Ghulam Jilani, another individual who has been nominated in the case, was also arrested.

Meanwhile, a civil court judge extended the judicial remand of Mian Tariq Mahmood, who has been accused of showing judge Malik a “compromising video” to blackmail him, by 14 days. He will be produced before the court on September 16.

Judge Malik — who had in December last year sentenced Nawaz Sharif to seven years in jail in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption reference and acquitted him in the Flagship Investment case — has been at the centre of controversy since July 6, when PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz alleged that he had been “blackmailed” into giving the verdict against Sharif.

According to judge Malik’s affidavit — presented to the Islamabad High Court chief justice as a rebuttal to Maryam’s press conference — Mahmood, an old acquaintance of his, had been the one to show him a “secretly recorded manipulated immoral video [showing him] in a compromising position” that was shot while the judge was serving in Multan.

The judge claimed that this video was later used by Sharif’s long-time supporter Butt to blackmail him.