PESHAWAR, July 9: An additional district and sessions’ judge, Ahmad Sultan Tareen, on Saturday acquitted two persons charged with trafficking in drugs and arms. The court observed that the prosecution could not prove its case against the two accused. The defence counsel, Usman Khan Tarlandi, pointed out that the accused were arrested and interrogated by the Criminals Investigation Department (CID) whereas under the law the CID had no status of police station.

He stated that the CID could only investigate a case whereas it had no powers to register a case or make seizures.

The accused, Iftikhar and Tariq Khan, were arrested on April 20, 2000. CID Inspector Ashraf Khan had claimed that they had been tipped off about the smuggling of arms and drugs.

He stated that they cordoned off the road near the Sheikh Muhammadi area and spotted a Suzuki pick-up from which three sacks were dropped.

The inspector claimed that the two accused were caught red-handed with the sacks. He alleged that on searching it he recovered 80kg of charas from the two sacks and from the third one he recovered 15 rifles, nine pistols and 2,000 cartridges.

Mr Usman Tarlandi referred to various judgments of the superior courts and argued that the CID and the Crimes Investigation Agency had no authority to deal with such cases.

He further pointed out that samples were only taken from three out of 80 packets.