LAHORE, Feb 22: Three owners of a collapsed medicine factory on Multan Road managed to escape police custody after an additional district and sessions judge rejected their interim pre-arrest bail petitions on Wednesday.

After counsel for the accused and the state concluded their arguments, Judge Chaudhry Nazir Ahmad reserved verdict on the bail petitions. The accused who attended the proceedings in the morning, however, escaped from the court premises before announcement of the verdict.

The judge announced judgment and ordered the police to arrest the accused/petitioners. However, they had already left the premises.

On Feb 9, the judge had granted pre-arrest bails to Zafar Iqbal, Zaheer Iqbal and Zubair Iqbal, owners of the medicine factory, which had caved in allegedly due to boiler explosion and dozens of its employees lost their lives.