PESHAWAR, June 18: District and sessions judge Miftauddin Khan on Monday dismissed a habeas corpus petition, challenging the illegal detention of a man by police. The court pronounced the order after the SHO of the police station concerned stated on oath that Shah Zaman had not been detained. Mohammad Naeem, a petitioner and nephew of Mr Zaman, insisted that he had been picked up by SHO of Nasirbagh Police Station Khaista Khan and other policemen on June 15 after a local court granted him bail in a traffic offence.

The petitioner claimed that the detainee had been arrested by the police on June 14 on charges of travelling in a car having tinted glasses, but released on bail the next day by a judicial magistrate.

The petitioner alleged that the policemen had been waiting for Mr Zaman and when he came out of the court he was again picked up. He alleged that initially Mr Zaman had been kept in East Cantt Police Station but later he was moved to Nasirbagh Police Station. The petitioner claimed that from Nasirbagh Mr Zaman was shifted to an undisclosed location. He prayed to the court to declare his detention illegal.

Police claimed that although Mr Zaman had not been arrested, he was involved in three cases. The petitioner refuted the police claim, stating that in two of the cases Zaman had been acquitted and in the third case he had been granted bail by the court.