PESHAWAR, Oct 7: An alleged accused in a murder case is behind the bars for the last about three years without any trial.

Despite repeated notices by the local court the concerned police has not been putting challan of his case in the court.

Interestingly, his bail petition has also been pending since December 2000 as the police has not been producing record of the case. The court has now fixed October 11 for hearing his bail petition, but it is learnt that the police has not produced his record till now.

Under section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code investigation against an accused shall be completed within 14 days from the date of recording of the FIR.

The affectee, Khan Rehman resident of Maqsoodabad, Peshawar, was charged in an alleged murder case whose FIR was registered on March 17, 1995, at police station Daudzai. He was charged of killing Mir Ali. Police claimed that the prisoner and his brother were locked in a scuffle and the deceased tried to stop them.

He was arrested on Dec 23, 1998, and since then he has been waiting for commencement of his trial. Initially, his bail application was rejected on merit. When the concerned police failed to submit challan of the case before the court in the prescribed period, an application was filed on Oct 11, 1999, praying the court to issue directives to the police for submission of the challan.

However, till date the complete challan has not been submitted. Later on Dec 5, 2000, the accused again filed a bail application on statutory grounds as under 3rd proviso to section 497 of the CrPC the concerned court should release a person on bail whose trial has not concluded and who, being accused in an offence punishable with death, has been detained for a continuous period exceeding two years.

As the police has not been producing record of the case, finally, counsel of the accused, Bashir Khan Tanghi, argued the case without presence of the record. However, on July 14, 2001 the court of additional sessions judge dismissed the application in default, stating that the counsel was not present.

His counsel again submitted the application, claiming that on the said day he was present in the premises of the court and as he had already argued the case, therefore, there was no need of his presence at the time of pronouncement of the order.

The application is now pending before the court of additional district and sessions judge, Peshawar, Shamsher Ali Khan.