PESHAWAR, Oct 20: A court on Thursday acquitted a boy in a case of drug peddling. Additional District and Sessions Judge Jamal Khan pronounced that the prosecution could not prove its case against the accused, Bahadur Sher, and the evidence on record proved that the boy was not the owner of the vehicle from which the contraband had been seized.

The boy was arrested by Chamkani police on Aug 27, 2004. Police claimed that they had received a tip about smuggling of contraband through a coach. They stopped the coach near Tarnab Farm and found 95kg of charas in it, they said, adding that the accused was driving the vehicle.

Chairman of the Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan, appeared for the accused and contended that he had been falsely implicated in the case.

He stated that the accused used to serve as a cleaner. Two days prior to the occurrence, he added, the accused got ill and was taken to a hospital and thus he was not on duty.

Mr Khan contended that on the day of the arrest, the father of the accused received a message from the owner of the coach that his son should reach Tarnab Farm where the vehicle had gone out of order. When the accused reached Tarnab Farm, he was arrested by police and told that the coach had drugs in it.

He added that the owner and driver of the coach were not arrested, whereas the boy was charged in the case.