PESHAWAR, April 22: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday acquitted an elderly person convicted by a trial court of drug pushing.

The bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Qaim Jan Khan set aside the sentence of seven years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs50,000 awarded to appellant Jawed Khan who is stated to be 70 years old.

The bench observed that there were various doubts in the case whose benefits should go to the appellant. The appellant was arrested by officials of police station Pishtakhara on July 11, 2003, while he was travelling in a public transport bus. The police claimed that he had concealed four kgs of charas and three kgs of impure charas in his trouser.

The appellant was charged under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997. The additional district and sessions judge convicted him on March 8. Chief of 'Voice of Prisoners' Noor Alam appeared for the appellant and contended that the police showed that they had recovered 29 slabs of charas from the appellant's possession.

He added that normally a single slab of charas was about one kg which meant that the police had recovered 29 kgs of charas, whereas in the FIR the police claimed recovering four kgs of pure charas. He contended that the evidence on record proved that the case property did not belong to instant case.