RAWALPINDI, Aug 21 (INP): A Rawalpindi civil court on Friday acquitted actress Atiqa Odho in a nine-year-old case in which she was accused of carrying two liquor bottles in her luggage at an airport.

The court, in its verdict, said that there was no evidence against Odho. The verdict was announced by Rawalipindi's judicial magistrate Yasir Chaudhry.

The case was remanded to the trial court in 2018 by the Supreme Court. The actress in 2017 had appealed the top court to intervene, saying that all trial courts had rejected her application for acquittal on the grounds that the trial was not over and the matter would be decided after closing of the evidence of the accused in the defence.

In 2011, Odho was detained by the Airport Security Force at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport for allegedly carrying two liquor bottles in her luggage. She was released shortly after the intervention of some ‘influential figures’ in the matter.

Then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of her release and ordered authorities to lodge a first information report of the incident.

Odho's lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar had argued that she had been implicated in a false case as a result of the suo-motu action that too was based on news reports.

He further said that the case against his client was false and frivolous and after the prosecution's conclusion of its evidence, it was obvious that no case had been made against her.

INP/LK/SB