PESHAWAR, Aug 21: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday summoned a sub-inspector of the Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA), Murtaza Khan, in an illegal detention case.

The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervaiz and Justice Shehzad Akber Khan, directed the SI to appear before the court on Thursday with all the record pertaining to the detention of the petitioner, Nawab Ali.

The petitioner has complained that he has been in illegal detention since April 24, whereas police have claimed that he was arrested in Bara, Khyber Agency, by the Khasadars on May 8, and was given in the custody of the CIA for 10 days.

Though the area people have endorsed the petitioner’s claim, the CIA has refuted his allegations. CIA Inspector Syed Sikander Shah appeared before the court and stated that according to the relevant record, Ali was not in illegal detention and had been arrested in the tribal area.

The petitioner’s counsel, Jawed. A. Khan, contended that a number of witnesses had met the detainee in the lock-up of the CIA centre on May 3; hence the claim of the CIA police that he had been arrested in Bara on May 8 was wrong.

The bench asked the counsel that even if his initial arrest was illegal, what relief the court could extend to him as he had been charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulations which were out of its jurisdiction. The counsel said that as his client’s detention was illegal ab initio (from the very beginning), the court had the jurisdiction to set him at liberty or at least release him on bail.