PESHAWAR, Nov 23: Additional District and Sessions Judge Shahid Khan on Wednesday rejected the bail petition of a person charged with having desecrated of the holy Quran. The court dismissed the plea after a medical board submitted its report, observing that accused-petitioner Muhammad Rehman had not been suffering from any mental ailment.

Initially, the accused had denied the charge levelled against him by local imam Maulana Mohammad Shafiq. Later, his counsel pleaded that his medical examination might be conducted as the accused was mentally unfit.

The Gulbahar police arrested Rehman, son of Mewa Khan, after the prayer leader of Farooq-i-Azam Jamia Mosque, Akhunabad No. 4, registered a case against him on July 19.

He was charged under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) dealing with the offence of defiling the Holy Quran.

The prosecution said Rehman, 22, had a quarrel with his father, which drew neighbours’ attention and they gathered outside his house.

During the exchange of hot words between the two, the mother of the accused brought a copy of the Holy Quran and pleaded to stop the quarrel. The prosecution claimed that in a fit of anger, Rehman threw away the copy of the Holy Quran. The mother started a hue and cry.

When people came to know about the incident, they informed the prayer leader who lodged the compliant.