PESHAWAR, Dec 30: A Pesh Imam, accused of selling a married woman, has been allowed bail by a local court.

Judicial Magistrate Adil Akber ordered that the accused, Maulana Hayat Khan, be released after furnishing two surety bonds of Rs100,000 each.

Khan was arrested for allegedly selling Malango, wife of Ajmal Khan, after an FIR was lodged against him with the Daudzai police on Aug 18 by the woman’ mother.

The complainant said her daughter had gone missing and her son-in-law had been making lame excuses about the disappearance of Malango.

When arrested, Ajmal Khan informed the police that in connivance with Maulana Hayat Khan, Pesh Imam of the Garhi Khan Baba village mosque, he had sold his wife to a man in Punjab. The police arrested the Pesh Imam and recovered the woman from Punjab.

Initially, Malango told the police that she had married Ajmal Khan nine years ago and had three children. She added that her husband’s friend, Khursheed, had told him that Hayat Khan arranged marriages in Punjab by receiving money.

She said she had been told by her husband that they (her husband and the Pesh Imam) were taking her to Attock for watching a fair. Later, she added, she had gone unconscious after taking tea served to her by them.

On regaining consciousness, the woman found herself in the Kotli village in Punjab and was married to an old man. She was told that her husband and Hayat Khan had sold her for Rs45,000.

Later, Malango recorded another statement in favour of the Pesh Imam, stating that he was not the person who had accompanied them to Punjab.

The counsel of the defendant contended that his client had falsely been implicated in the case as no identification parade had been conducted by the police.

He maintained that Hayat Khan was not the person who had taken the woman to Punjab and sold her there.