PESHAWAR: The district and sessions judge here on Saturday convicted an accused for narcotics trafficking and sentenced him to life imprisonment and fined him Rs1 million in default of which he should undergo two years simple imprisonment.

Judge Ashfaque Taj ruled that the prosecution proved its case against the accused, Mohammad Siddique, a resident of Khyber tribal district, and the evidence on record connected him with the commission of the offence.

The court also declared as proclaimed offenders three of the absconding accused identified as Naeem, Riaz Afridi and Khan Alam, residents of Khyber, and issued their perpetual arrest warrants. The court pronounced that based on the evidence, a prima facie case was made out against the absconding accused.

About the prime accused, the judge observed that he was found guilty of being in the conscious possession of 86.40 kilograms of charas and 62.40 kilograms of opium.

The judge observed that the prosecution witnesses remained firm in their depositions against the accused.

Court declares three co-accused absconders

“The venue of occurrence alleged in the FIR also stands established from evidence. No major contradictions could be pointed out to lead this court to believe that it was a false case,” the court observed.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Anti-Narcotics Force police station on November 23, 2019, under section 9-D of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019.

ANF claimed that it received a tip that some smugglers of Khyber tribal district would be smuggling narcotics through their special agent Mohammad Siddique in a vehicle from Peshawar to Punjab.

It was added that a contingent of ANF personnel started surveillance near Garhi Qamar Deen bridge on Kohat road and stopped the vehicle in question coming from Badabher side.

It was stated that the driver identified as Mohammad Siddique after some hesitation admitted presence of narcotics in a box in the vehicle. On opening the box, the ANF team recovered the seized narcotics.

Special public prosecutor Irfanur Rehman contended that through eyewitness testimony, the recovery of the contraband from the vehicle driven by Mohammad Siddique was proven beyond doubt. He added that there was no contradiction in the testimony of different prosecution witnesses.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2023