PESHAWAR, March 26: The Peshawar High Court on Friday granted bail to a man accused of sexually abusing a child labourer. A single bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed ordered that the petitioner should be released after furnishing two sureties of Rs100,000 each.

The petitioner, Arshid Khan, and four other men were charged with taking away a boy of 15 at gunpoint and sexually abusing him at an unidentified place. The other four accused were Sardar, Hidayatullah, Sayar and Akram.

The other four accused were earlier granted bail by an additional district and sessions judge after they had entered into a compromise with the complainant's family. They had allegedly paid Rs70,000 each to the complainant's family.

Initially, the complainant, Imam Hussain, who worked in a motor workshop, had charged the five men with the commission of the offence. An FIR was registered with Bana Mari Police Station on July 6, 2003, under Section 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 12 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979. Later on, the complainant changed his statement and claimed that he did not know the culprits.

Advocate Usman Tarlandi appeared for the petitioner and argued that when the complainant had resiled from his earlier statement then no identification parade was conducted to ascertain whether the present petitioner was the real culprit.