An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has granted interim pre-arrest bail to television actor Muneeb Ahmed Butt after he was booked in a short-term kidnapping and extortion case.
The case stems from an incident on April 22, when the complainant, Mutaal Khan, was intercepted by four armed men in a double-cabin vehicle while traveling in a cab toward the airport for a flight to Lahore. According to the First Information Report FIR [First Information Report] registered by the Airport police, armed men allegedly abducted Khan at gunpoint under the pretext that he had been involved in a traffic accident.
The complainant alleged that the abductors moved him across various locations, confiscated his laptop, and forcibly transferred 8,600 USDT from his mobile application. Khan was later released in an undisclosed area within the Korangi Industrial Area.
Following the initial complaint, law enforcement authorities apprehended four principal suspects identified as Hamza, Saalim, Shahid, and Wazir. The police subsequently expanded the scope of the FIR to include other suspects, including a police constable and actor Muneeb Butt.
Speaking to the media, the complainant’s legal counsel, Advocate Syed Israr Ali Shah, stated that the investigating officer had booked the actor on charges of allegedly facilitating at least two of the primary suspects while they were hiding in Islamabad. Shah noted that while the investigating agency had officially booked Butt, it remained unconfirmed whether the actor had any direct involvement in the execution of the actual crime.
Prior to surrendering before the Karachi ATC, the actor had secured protective bail from the Islamabad High Court to avoid immediate arrest. Upon his appearance in Karachi, the ATC granted Butt interim bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000 and fixed June 8 as the date for the confirmation hearing of the bail application.
The case remains registered at the Airport police station under Sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property), 392 (robbery), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read alongside Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
