Supreme Court grants bail to blasphemy accused

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to a blasphemy accused who allegedly joined a Whatsapp group that posted blasphemous content.  A two-member bench of the SC, headed by Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, heard the bail application of the accused. During the hearing, Justice Isa inquired from the public prosecutor why had the trial court not imposed any clause in the indictment. The apex court judge added how will the accused fight his case when he does not know what crime he has committed. To this, the deputy attorney general replied that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) ​​had inquired into the matter on the complaint. Read: Court dismisses post-arrest bails in blasphemy cases Irked by the remark, Justice Isa told the deputy attorney general that he should know which clause is imposed at the time of indictment. Justice Isa furthered that the FIA ​​also sought the opinion of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) in this case, adding that the council said that section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) does not apply to the accused. The top court's judge added that the CII is a constitutional body, when the opinion of a constitutional body is not followed then it is better to “close it”. Justice Yahya Afridi then asked the lawyer of the accused regarding the date the CII opinion was recieved, to this, the council replied that the opinion came on June 8, 2022. Justice Afridi then inquired if the trial court had rejected the bail despite the opinion of the council. He further stated that at this stage, the SC cannot give its opinion. “If we give an opinion, the case under hearing in the high court will be affected,” added Justice Afridi. While giving remarks during the hearing, Justice Isa said that every case about religion is related to the state. “Matters related to religion cannot be left in the hands of individuals but the state machinery should handle them with utmost capacity and caution,” he furthered. The judge added that state machinery should not lie before individuals in these matters, further stating that in a case related to religion, the trial court framed the charge but did not insert the section. Also read: Blasphemy suspect gets bail Expressing dissatisfaction over the FIA ​​investigation, the court said that further investigation was required in the case. The apex court stated that the investigation was incomplete because the alleged post is in Arabic but the investigation doesn’t prove whether the complainant knows Arabic or not. The apex court added that the investigation also fails to mention how the complainant came to know about the post. The apex court then granted bail to the accused on a surety bond of Rs100,000. FIA Cybercrime Multan registered a case against the accused on June 6, 2022 on a complaint. Later, a trial court and the high court had rejected the bail of the accused.

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