The jury has been discharged in the case of a Bradford family accused of drugging and kidnapping a woman after she refused an arranged marriage.

The panel was discharged by Judge Simon Newell yesterday on the fifth day of the hearing at Burnley Crown Court.

Shamim Akhtar, 58 and Mohammed Khan, 57, the parents of alleged victim Naila Afsar, had been on trial along with her brother Shamrez Khan, 34, her sister, Saima Mahmood, 30, and her brother-in-law, Zahid Mahmood, 36.

Akhtar, of Kirkwall Drive, Holme Wood, Mohammed Khan, of Scotchman Road, Manningham, Shamrez Khan, of Moor Avenue, Great Horton, and the Mahmoods, of Empress Street, Accrington, all denied kidnap, false imprisonment and two counts of administering the drug lorazepam with intent.

A new trial is set to be held in May.

Judge Newell ordered that the reasons why the jury was discharged cannot be disclosed.

The defendants had been accused of taking Mrs Afsar prisoner and sedating her in a bid to take her back to the family home in Bradford and cut her off from Afsar Saddiq, who she had married in secret in Newcastle.

The jury had heard claims Mrs Afsar’s family had wanted her to marry her cousin Amraiz Khan, but she had run away. Mrs Afsar had told the jury she had thought she might be killed.