PESHAWAR, July 12: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday set aside the conviction of a woman awarded by a subordinate court for drug pushing. A two-member PHC bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Qaim Jan Khan observed that the prosecution’s witnesses had recorded contradictory statements.

The bench accepted a criminal appeal filed by the convict, Ms Nasreen, a resident of Bashirabad.

The woman was arrested on March 6 last year by personnel of the Criminals Investigation Department (CID) near a bus stand. CID officials said they had a tip that the woman was smuggling the contraband to Punjab.

They claimed that a woman constable, Ms Sumaira, frisked Ms Nasreen and recovered from her bag 5.7kg of charas and 4kg of opium. She was charged under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997.

The trial court convicted her on April 19, 2007 and sentenced her to 14 years rigorous imprisonment, with a fine of Rs100,000.

Voice of Prisoners chairman Noor Alam Khan appeared for Ms Nasreen and contended that she was falsely implicated in the case by an official of the CID from whom the appellant’s family had rented a house. He said that as the official wanted to evacuate the family from the house, therefore, he implicated her in the case.

Mr Noor Alam argued that the witnesses had recorded conflicting statements. He said the CID officials claimed that a woman constable had recovered the contraband, while the policewoman stated that she had only taken the bag from Ms Nasreen and had not searched it by herself.

He said the statement of Ms Sumaira had not been recorded after the occurrence under section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Her statement was later recorded by the trial court which was a violation of the law, he argued.

Mr Alam had presented his arguments on Wednesday following which the bench summoned the appellant and the woman constable who appeared on Thursday.

The bench asked the woman constable if she had recorded the statement in favour of the accused under any influence. Ms Sumaira stated that she had recorded the statement on oath and narrated the facts. She said she had not recovered the contraband from the appellant’s bag.