PESHAWAR, Jan 31: The district and sessions judge, Peshawar, Hayat Ali Shah, has directed the local police to submit charge-sheets of about 119 cases in which accused have been languishing in prison without any trial.

It is learnt that the judge had summoned the station house officers (SHOs) of the police stations concerned and directed them to submit the charge-sheets before the court.

The judge took notice of the issue after he came to know about it during his recent visit to the Central Prison, Peshawar.

Mr Shah observed that under the law the police had to submit the charge-sheet of a case within 14 days of the registration of the FIR and in case the investigation could not be completed during  that period an interim charge-sheet had to be submitted with the court concerned. He added that on the basis of that charge-sheet the court had to commence trial of an accused.

However, the judge observed that the accused charged in these cases were in prison without any trial, as the police failed to submit the charge-sheets.

According to the list of these cases, 66 cases belong to the Bhadabher police station, 21 to Anti-Corruption police station, 15 to Mathra police station, and 13 cases belong to  the Daudzai police station.

Most of these cases are of murder, kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, fraud and arms carrying, etc.

Some of the accused have been languishing in prison for the last two years.

These accused have sent an application to the Voice of Prisoner, an organisation looking after the rights of prisoners.

The chairman of the NWFP chapter of the organisation, Advocate Noor Alam Khan, said that by not submitting the charge-sheets of the cases the police had been violating section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

He suggested that the magistrates concerned could check the practice by not extending judicial custody of an accused if there was delay in submission of a case with the court.