PESHAWAR, Oct 28: The Peshawar High Court on Friday expressed annoyance over cases in which police had prior information about smuggling of narcotics, but smugglers escaped despite heavy police presence.

Chief Justice Tariq Pervez asked how it could be possible for the accused to escape despite the heavy presence of police.

The court directed the provincial police hierarchy to look into such cases, saying that accused could not have escaped without the connivance of police personnel.

These observations were made by the court in a bail-petition filed by accused Sher Bahadur, who was arrested in a case of drug trafficking.

He could not be arrested on the spot, but was apprehended latter by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The bench accepted his petition and granted him bail for two sureties of Rs500,000 each.

Advocate Noor Alam Khan appeared for the petitioner and contended that he was implicated in the case.

He contended that the real accused-persons had escaped from the scene and the CID officials had arrested the petitioner later on for concealing their inefficiency.

None of the prosecution witnesses, he said, had deposed that they had seen the petitioner driving the vehicle from which the contraband was recovered. He added that no identification parade of the petitioner was conducted.

The incident took place on Feb 17, 2004. The CID claimed that they had information about smuggling of narcotics in a pick-up bearing a fake registration number of an international NGO.

The CID police, headed by SP Dilawar Bangash, cordoned off the Charssada road near Bakhsho bridge. When the police saw the vehicle, they signalled it to stop.

They alleged that two accused persons, Sher Bahadur and Feroz, were in the vehicle, but they managed to escape due to rush of the people.

The CID officials had seized 600kg of charas and fake number plates from the vehicle.