ISLAMABAD: A local court on Tuesday granted bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Amin Gandapur in the audio leak case registered against him at Golra police station.

Additional Sessions Judge Sikandar Khan, while announcing its reserved judgment, granted bail to Gandapur against surety bonds of Rs 300,000. Gandapur was arrested earlier this month in a case pertaining to threatening national institutions.

The court reserved its verdict on Monday last after hearing arguments of both the prosecution and defence.

The investigation officer (IO) of the case submitted his statement before the court.

The judge questioned the IO that what is the stance of the accused regarding the audio leak. The accused has termed the audio leak fake, the IO told the court.

The IO informed the court that the police have moved an application for Call Data Recording (CDR) of the accused which has so far not been received.

The audio recording of the accused has been sent to the Cybercrime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for forensic analysis, he further said, adding that it will be determined during the forensic analysis whether the voice in the audio tape is of Gandapur or not. He said that the accused told the police during the investigation that someone has taken the phone on which he talked in the said audio at the time of the arrest.

Police arrested Gandapur last week outside the building of the Peshawar High Court’s Dera Ismail Khan Bench. He was handed over to Islamabad’s Golra police but his custody was later given to Bhakkar police.

The first information report (FIR) registered against Gandapur mentioned an audio leak, in which he could purportedly be heard using derogatory language against the federal coalition. According to the FIR, the audio was aired on a private news channel.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023