PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday set aside conviction of two people sentenced to life imprisonment by a subordinate court for drug trafficking.

Justice Irshad Qaisar and Justice Syed Afsar Shah observed that the prosecution evidence was not enough for conviction of the two appellants, Meraj and Jawed, both residents of Bara Khyber Agency, and therefore, benefit of doubt went to them.

The prosecution had claimed that the appellants were arrested by Chamkani police in Peshawar on Nov 15, 2011, as they had prior tip about smuggling of contraband by them on a truck.

It added that the truck was apparently loaded with chipboards but smuggled medicines and narcotics, including 18kg opium and raw charas, were concealed in them.

Noor Alam Khan, lawyer for the appellants, said his clients were convicted by the trial court but another suspect, Jan Said, was acquitted.

He said his clients had parked the truck for loading chipboards at a distribution centre and had gone to take tea.

The lawyer said in the meantime, the police came and took away the truck to the police station.

He said it was on record that first, the police alleged that non-custom paid medicines were seized but subsequently, they added narcotics to the ‘seized’ items.

The lawyer said his clients were falsely implicated in the case and that was evident from the report of the chemical examination of the ‘seized narcotics’.

He said the prosecution claimed throughout the legal proceedings that the seized charas was in raw form but the examination report showed it was in solid form.

The lawyer also said the statements of prosecution witnesses were also in conflict with each other.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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