PESHAWAR, May 4: The district and sessions judge, Peshawar, Hayat Ali Shah, has issued arrest warrants for the East Cantonment police station SHO for keeping a person in illegal detention for over a week and directed the police to produce the SHO on Monday.

A habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Nazimuddin has been pending before the court. Despite repeated court notices, the SHO expressed ignorance about the detainee’s whereabouts. Finally, the court deputed a bailiff to visit the police station.

When the bailiff visited the police station, the officials informed him that they had not arrested the detainee.

Soon after the bailiff’s visit, the police produced the detainee before the court of a local magistrate and claimed they had arrested him in connection with a theft case registered in 1995. They sought two days custody of the detainee.

When the district and sessions judge came to know about it on Saturday, he directed the production of the detainee. The Persian-speaking detainee informed the court that he was arrested on April 25 and had not been produced before any court of law. He claimed he was tortured by the police.

The police also allegedly took away his wristwatch, cell phone and motorbike. Pir Fida advocate appeared for the detainee and contended that the police had tried to cheat the court by concealing the illegal detention of the detainee.

He stated that once the police came to know about the habeas corpus petition, they produced him before a magistrate and charged him in an untraced case.

The court sent the detainee to central prison and issued arrest warrants of the SHO concerned.