PHC sets aside convictions in narcotics case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday acquitted five convicts including three women sentenced to life-term in a narcotics case.

A division bench comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan acquitted the convicts as the state lawyer failed to defend the sentence on part of the prosecution side.

The court acquitted two men identified as Yaqoob and Sharif and three women, Jan Sultana, Nageena and Basia, of narcotics charges.

A trial court had sentenced them to life imprisonment.

During the course of hearing, Noor Alam Khan, counsel for the appellants, submitted that the police recovered 20 kilogram of hashish from the possession of the women travelling in a car heading to Punjab.

He said the cops from Sheikh Maltoon Police Station arrested the accused on September 9, 2014.

The lawyer said that Additional District and Sessions Judge of Mardan Kulsoom Azam awarded life-term to the accused and fined them Rs100,000 on January 30, 2016 .

The lawyer pointed out that no lady constable was produced in the trial court through whom the police had claimed to have recovered the narcotics from the women.

He submitted that the police claimed in the first information report that two cars were used in the incident, but the police failed to reproduce the vehicles. 

He pointed out that sample from the seized narcotics was sent to laboratory for test after 25 days, which created doubts and the accused were falsely implicated in the case.

The lawyer requested the court to acquit the appellants as they had been falsely implicated.

The state lawyer defended the conviction awarded by the trial court. However, he couldn’t satisfy the court about the questions raised by the counsel for the appellants.