LAHORE, Jan 26: Two senior officials of a Karachi-based pharmaceutical company were allegedly picked up by police in civvies on Thursday last as they came out of the Sessions Court here.

Efroze Chemicals deputy director Nadir Feroze Khan and manager Shakil Ahmad Khan had appeared before the Sessions Court to secure bails in a case lodged against them at Shadman police station in connection with the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) scam which had claimed lives of over 150 cardiac patients who had been receiving free medicines last year.

The case was registered on the basis of findings of an inquiry conducted by senior police officials who had declared that a ‘suspected’ medicine manufactured and distributed by Karachi-based Eforze Chemicals was responsible for the deaths of the heart patients.

The relatives of the two ‘missing’ men alleged the police in civvies had picked them both outside the court and took them to some undisclosed place despite the fact they had been granted bails in the case.

The Punjab government denies arrest of the accused.

“Four policemen in plainclothes appeared in an Elite Police van, bundled Nadir Khan and Shakil Khan into it and took them away in the presence of several people”, Mohsin, a relative of the accused, told Dawn by phone.

He said since Thursday last there was no clue to both Nadir and Shakil and alleged the Lahore police took an extra-judicial step by picking up the accused, violating the court orders.

Meanwhile, in a statement on Saturday, chief minister’s special assistant on health Khawaja Salman Rafiq said Lahore police did not arrest Nadir Khan Feroze and Shakil Khan.

He said the Punjab government had great respect for the courts and the decision in the case would be implemented in letter and spirit.