PESHAWAR, Nov 18: The Peshawar district and sessions judge, Shahjehan Khan Akhundzada, on Friday directed the provincial police officer to take departmental action against the SHO of Faqirabad police station for keeping two people in illegal detention for two weeks.

The judge ordered that the PPO should inform the court about the action taken against the SHO, Jehanzeb Khan.

The SHO appeared before the court but could not give any satisfactory reason for detaining the two people.

The detainees were recovered from Faqirabad police station on Thursday by a bailiff of the court. They claimed that they had been kept in detention and tortured without any ground and without registration of any FIR.

The action was taken by Mr Akhundzada over a habeas corpus petition filed by local jeweller Haji Awal Khan. The petitioner stated that his brother Khan Mohammad and nephew Wali Marjan had been kept in illegal detention at the Faqirabad police station by the SHO for two weeks.

The chairman of Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan, appeared for the petitioners and argued that the detainees had not been produced before any court of law since their arrest two weeks ago. He contended that under the constitution a detainee had to be produced in court within 24 hours of their arrest.

The court on Thursday forthwith deputed a bailiff to visit Faqirabad police station. The bailiff visited the station and found that the two detainees were in the police station lock- up. The bailiff stated that the SHO did not cooperate with him and when he was asked in which case the detainees had been held he had no answer.

When the bailiff informed the court about the facts, Mr Akhundzada deputed the chief bailiff along with other bailiff to visit the police station and bring the detainees to court along with the SHO.

Mr Akhundzada inquired from the SHO about the ground of their detention. The SHO put forward different excuses and stated that he had held the detainees on order of the high officials and was not sure about the grounds.

He claimed that he had arrested the detainees on Thursday morning and not two weeks ago.