PESHAWAR, July 24: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday acquitted a boy and set aside his conviction by a trial court in a narcotics case.

The boy, Muhammad Iqbal, was sentenced by additional district and sessions judge to five years imprisonment with fine of Rs 5,000. He claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case and it was in fact cooked up by the local police.

A two-member bench of the court accepted the criminal appeal of the boy and observed that there were various lacunas in the prosecution case.

The bench observed that they could not let the police scot free to make concocted cases against innocent citizens.

Advocate Mohammad Khursheed appeared for the appellant and stated that according to the FIR registered on Feb 22, 2001, the appellant was arrested by officials of Kothwali police station on Pando Road and from his possession 1.5kgs of charas was recovered.

He argued that at the time of his arrest the police claimed of sending a sample of the seized drug to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), but according to record the FSL had received the sample on March 29, 2001. He argued that the police could not explain the delay of more than one month.

Moreover, Mr Khursheed added there was conflict in the statements of two officials who claimed to be present on the spot.

One witness, he added, stated that there were two slabs of contraband, whereas the other witness claimed that there was a single slab of charas.