PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has turned down bail plea of an accused suffering from mental ailment in a double-murder case and upheld order of the trial court to refer him to a psychiatric facility for treatment.

A single-member bench of PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan ruled that the trial court had rightly ordered to refer the petitioner, Akhtar Zaman, to the psychiatric ward of Police and Services Hospital and in the meanwhile adjourned the trial proceedings sine die.

The court observed that the trial proceedings could be revived as and when the petitioner was declared fit by the standing medical board after his recovery from the ailment.

The petitioner along with his two absconding brothers Afsar Zaman and Khurshid Zaman was charged for the murder of Roaidad Gul and his son Rab Nawaz in thelimits of Urmer police station in Peshawar on July 15, 2016.

Upholds trial court order of referring him to psychiatric facility

Following the occurrence the petitioner had been absconding and was arrested on February 20, 2021. Earlier, his bail petition was rejected on merit by the high court on April 23, 2021. After the trial commenced, the petitioner raised the plea of unsound mind and filed an application for constitution of a medical board.

He was examined by a medical board and a report was submitted by it on September 14, 2021, wherein it was mentioned that he had no major mental illness and that he was mentally sound and could face trial in court of law.

The petitioner again raised the issue on October 25, 2021. He was again referred to a standing medical board by the trial court.

The medical board in its report on April 7, 2022 ruled that the petitioner was suffering from bipolar affective disorder, which was a major mental illness with episodes of severe mood disturbance where the patient was of unsound mind during such episodes.

The board stated that it was likely that the patient with bipolar affective disorder acted without knowing the consequences of his/her act during the episode of mood disturbance. However, the board added that it could not be confirmed from the FIR, treatment record and behaviour of the accused that he was of sound mind or otherwise at the time of committing the crime.

On the basis of the said report, the petitioner filed bail plea before the trial court, which was rejected on June 20, 2022. On the same date, the trial court adjourned the trial sine die till his recovery from mental illness and referred him to the custody of the mental ward of Police and Services Hospital Peshawar for treatment.

The petitioner’s counsel contended before the high court when his client was admittedly a patient of bipolar affective disorder disease, then he was entitled to the released on bail as required under section 466 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

An additional advocate general, Mujahid Ali Khan, opposed his plea, stating that the accused was a dangerous and hardened criminal and was also charged in 14 other criminal cases of identical nature.

The bench observed that neither any plea of the alleged mental sickness was agitated by the accused in the first round of his bail petition, nor any medical history in that regard was brought before any forum.

The bench observed that keeping in view the conflicting opinions of the two standing medical boards and also his previous criminal history of his involvement in several other FIRs, the petitioner could not press into service section 466 of the CrPC for his release on bail.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2022