Court grants bail to Iqrarul Hassan in NCCIA case

KARACHI: A Karachi court on Saturday approved the bail application of Syed Iqrarul Hassan, ordering his release against surety bonds worth Rs200,000 in a case registered by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

Judicial Magistrate Gulraiz Memon announced the decision at the City Court after hearing arguments from the defence and the investigating agency. The television presenter and Pakistan Awam Raj Tehreek leader was taken into custody from Lahore’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on October 12.

During the proceedings, Hassan’s lawyer, Ahmed Masood, told the court that the challan in the case had already been submitted and that the anchorperson’s mobile devices had been taken into custody.

The NCCIA informed the court that no further investigation into Hassan was required, although the forensic report was still awaited.

The court subsequently approved his bail and directed that he be released upon submission of the required surety bonds.

Hassan was arrested in October and subsequently remanded into NCCIA custody for four days by a judicial magistrate (East). The agency had accused him of posting allegedly anti-state, false and defamatory content on his official social media accounts.

He was booked under sections 9, 10, 24 and 26-A of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

Following his arrest, Hassan’s wife, Farah Iqrar, had alleged that men in plain clothes entered their Lahore residence in the early hours of October 12 and took him away. She said the raiding party also seized two mobile phones belonging to her husband, a laptop and her own mobile phone.

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari had said that the police had not arrested Hassan and that the matter was being investigated.

Hassan had been critical of government policies on social media.