MITHI: A local court on Monday ordered release of a man, Shiva Lal, and restore to him his big consignment of gugar — an expensive herb — seized by police on Sunday evening.

Mr Lal was arrested at Wijoto bus stop between Mithi and Naukot towns while he was transporting 45 bags of gugar, collected from Nagarparkar, to Karachi. He was booked by the Mithi police for tree felling in violation of ban imposed under Section 144 and was produced in a local court.

However, the judge observed that that the ban had already lapsed and there was no law in effect at the moment to stop tree felling within the district. He ordered release of the suspect and restoration of his gugar consignment, said to be worth around Rs3 million, to him. Subsequently, the FIR was quashed.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016