LAHORE: Punjab police on Tuesday arrested three more people in a case pertaining to the harassment of a female TikTok actor and her partner who were purportedly assaulted by a crowd at Greater Iqbal Park on the eve of Independence Day.
The arrests were made hours after a new alleged audio call between Ayesha Akram and her partner Amir Sohail alias Rambo got leaked and went viral on social media. In the audio clip, the two were heard discussing options to blackmail the suspects arrested in connection with the case for money.
After the fresh detentions, the total number of arrests in the case has reached 11.
Police opened cases against hundreds of unidentified men in August after Akram was assaulted and purportedly groped by a crowd of more than 400 men in the park as she made a TikTok video.
The shocking assault was captured on several videos, which went viral and showed a mob descend on the woman.
Akram registered a case lodged with the Lorry Adda police station against 300 to 400 unidentified persons with Lahore police, according to the case report.
In the audio leak, Akram was heard saying she had identified six suspects during the course of the investigation.
She unveiled her plan to extract Rs600,000 from each of them to declare them innocent in the case and asked Rambo to give his opinion in this respect.
However, Rambo told Akram the suspects mostly belonged to poor families and won’t be able to pay the said amount. At this, she suggested him to decide Rs500,000 against each case.
Responding to the development, a police official said: “We have decided forensic analysis of the audio leak and further action will be taken on the basis of the reports.”
