PESHAWAR, Sept 17: A local court here on Saturday granted bail to a six-year-old boy, arrested by police on charges of drug pushing.

Peshawar District and Sessions Judge Ziauddin Khattak directed that two sureties of Rs50,000 each should be submitted on behalf of the boy.

The court referred the boy to Police Services Hospital for conducting his medical examination and determination of his age. The judge ordered police to submit challan of his case within 15 days.

The child, Owais Khan, is a second grade student at a local private educational institution. He was arrested by the personnel of East Cantt police station on Friday night. Police alleged that they had recovered three sachets of hashish from possession of the boy.

The boy was first produced before the court of judicial magistrate, Malik Hasnain. Looking at his tender age the magistrate referred him to the district and sessions judge.

Following his arrest the boy was sent to Police Child Protection Centre (CPC) on Friday night.

Advocate Firasatullah appeared on behalf of the CPC and contended that under section 82 of the Pakistan Penal Code nothing was an offence, which was done by a child under seven years of age. He added that apparently the boy was below seven thus he could not be booked for the instant offence. He added that the boy could not be sent to prison and it would be better either to release him or grant his custody to the child protection centre.

The court decided that the issue about whether he could be booked for the offence or not would be decided after his age determination and for the time being the boy would be released on bail under section 10 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance.The child told journalists that he was not aware why he was brought here. He said that he was arrested while standing outside his residence. He claimed that the policemen also slapped him and treated him harshly.

Police alleged that they had prior information about selling of contraband at Sattar Shah area following which they raided that place.

They claimed that they arrested the boy when they saw him receiving money from a person and then handing him over a sachet of hashish.

Police alleged that Israr, the father of the boy, was involved in drug pushing and was also using his son for that purpose. They added when they inquired from the boy from where he brought the charas he took them to a nearby graveyard where his father was present. The man, they said, managed to escape from the scene. Police registered a case under section 9 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act (CNSA), 1997.