PESHAWAR, Nov 5: A local court has ordered registration of an FIR against four officials of Peshawar Central Prison in the case of unnatural death of a prisoner allegedly because of violence in June last.

It is learnt that the court of additional district and sessions judge, Arshid Khan, issued the order on Nov 1 on the basis of a judicial inquiry, which was conducted by a judicial magistrate, Shahid Mehmood.

The court directed the SHO of East Cantt police station to register the FIR till Nov 10 against the four officials of the prison including the then superintendent, deputy superintendent, an assistant superintendent Shamroze Khan and chief in-charge Ahmad Ali.

The judge has ordered that the copy of his order should be sent to the additional inspector general of police (investigation), Peshawar capital city police chief and SHO of East Cantt police station for strict compliance and report.

An official at East Cantt police station told Dawn that so far they had not registered the FIR and would comply with the court's order in next few days.

He added that they had been looking into different aspects of the case.

The prisoner, Zafar Khan, had expired at the medico-legal ward of Lady Reading Hospital on June 18 after he was shifted there from the prison in precarious condition.

The relatives of the deceased prisoner including his mother, Ms Romana, had staged several protest demonstrations and demanded that action should be taken against the concerned officials of the prison.

Following the death of the prisoner, the Peshawar district and sessions judge, Mr Ziauddin Khattak, had ordered a judicial inquiry into the occurrence and deputed judicial magistrate Shahid Mehmood for that purpose.

The magistrate submitted his inquiry report on Oct 31 following which the additional district and sessions judge decided an application filed by Ms Romana requesting the court to order registration of the FIR against officials of the prison.

The application was filed by the woman under section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure under which the court exercises powers of justice of peace and could order registration of an FIR in an occurrence.

The complainant claimed that few days before the death of her son she had gone to the prison and met him, who was fine and not suffering from any illness.

An official said that the magistrate, in the inquiry, held that the cause of death of the prisoner was violence.

The additional district and sessions judge ruled that admittedly the deceased was in custody of jail authorities on judicial remand. It was added that the liability regarding safe custody of the deceased should rest with jail authorities including the four officials being the custodians of all the prisoners including the deceased.

After the occurrence the relatives of the deceased claimed that his body was carrying several marks of violence on different parts.

The deceased, aged about 24, was embroider and also used to work as cleaner with a local passenger Suzuki pick-up.

He was a resident of Sheikh Amirabad locality near Yakatoth area.

He was arrested by the officials of Gulbahar police station on June 4, along with the driver of the said vehicle on charges of possessing 500 grams of charas.

An FIR was registered against them under section 9-B of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act. They were produced before the magistrate on June 5 and were sent to prison by the court.