An official of police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday was arrested after the accused in a murder case managed to escape from his custody in Karachi's Quaidabad area while being shifted from a court to jail, said a senior official.

CTD Sub-Inspector Ashraf Gondal has been arrested over charges of negligence and alleged connivance with the accused, Adeel, said CTD Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Amir Farooqi.

The senior officer said that the CTD team had arrested Adeel in a murder case in year 2014.

On Monday, the CTD police presented him before a concerned court for hearing.

The held officer, Ashraf Gondal, instead of taking him in a police mobile to the Landhi jail told his police colleagues that he would drop him there alone.

Farooqi said the arrested officer claimed that on way to the jail, he was ‘tranquillised’ by relatives of the accused, and that the murder case accused had managed to escape.

However, the DIG CTD said an initial probe suggested that Gondal was telling a lie.

Farooqi said it was revealed that Gondal brought Adeel to a restaurant in Quaidabad and unlocked his handcuffs. In the meantime, the relatives of the accused arrived and took away.

Efforts are underway to arrest the accused and his relatives, the officer added.