PESHAWAR, June 29: A lawyer was convicted by a trial court here on Saturday of stealing a case file from the Peshawar High Court 23 years ago, and was awarded two-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs10,000.

The additional district and sessions judge, Shaiber Khan, pronounced that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused and he was sentenced to two-year imprisonment each under three different sections of the PPC. All the three sentences will run concurrently.

The case against the convict, Arshad Mehmood Lodhi of Nowshera, was registered by the then registrar of the high court, Mohammad Ishaq Khan, on July 12, 1979, at the East Cantt Police Station. He was charged under section 379/420/424 of the PPC.

Interestingly, challan of the case was submitted before the trial court on Oct 13, 1979, but due to one reason or the other the case continued to linger on. The present additional district and sessions judge, Shaiber Khan, after his posting here started disposing of cases which have been pending since long. Additional Public Prosecutor, Saleem Khan, appeared for the state whereas the accused himself pleaded his case.

According to the prosecution, a case “Mushtaq Ahmad versus State” in respect of quashment of proceeding in a case was pending adjudication before the Peshawar High Court. The accused on trial was counsel on behalf of Mushtaq Ahmad, who happened to be his agent or munshi. The accused applied for perusal of the record of the said case and was allowed to inspect the same.

The official concerned of the high court handed him over the file, but he did not return it. The court officials made effort for the recovery of the file but he continued offering excuses. It was alleged that the accused had intentionally taken away the said record as it was in favour of his agent.—Bureau