January 06, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 15, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Jan 5: An additional district and sessions judge on Friday confirmed the pre-arrest bail of a joint director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Zafarullah Khan, who is charged with illegally taking away a low-ranked employee of the bureau from a police station.

The judge, Asim Imam, observed that the applicant deserved the concession of pre-arrest bail in the case. The same court had on Dec 20 granted an interim pre-arrest bail to Mr Khan with the condition of furnishing two sureties amounting to Rs100,000 each.

Mr Khan has been charged in an FIR registered on Dec 5 at East Cant police station accusing him of illegally taking away from the police station a Naib Qasid of the bureau arrested on charges of planting explosives near the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

The FIR against Mr Khan and the employee, Mohammad Tufail, was registered under Sections 224 (resisting arrest by a person), 225 (resisting arrest of another person), 201 (destroying evidence), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function) and Section 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty).

Barrister Zahoorul Haq and Shahnawaz Khan appeared on behalf of the applicant and contended that all sections mentioned in the FIR were bailable except Section 225. The counsel contended that maximum punishment in Section 225 was up to three years imprisonment thus that was also not in the clauses which prohibit bail under the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and that he was entitled to concession of pre-arrest bail.

The counsel stated that the applicant had been implicated in the case because of political pressure to humiliate him, adding that there was nothing on file to connect the applicant with the commission of the offence.

The applicant’s counsel argued that two of the sections, 224 and 353, had already been deleted from the FIR. They added that the accused, Mohammad Tufail, had already been granted bail in the same case. They also argued that according to the police record, Mr Khan had not used force while taking away Mohammad Tufail.

Additional public prosecutor Mohammad Akber opposed the move and contended that the accused had been directly charged in the FIR.

Mohammad Tufail, the Naib Qasid, who is currently imprisoned in the Central Prison here, had already been granted bail in this case. However, he would have to remain in prison as he has yet to apply for bail in the main case against him, that of planting explosives.