LAHORE, July 19: An additional district and sessions judge on Thursday granted post arrest bail to a main accused in the Multan Road (Kharak) medicine factory boiler explosion case.

Judge Anjum Raza directed the accused and one of the factory owners, Zubair Iqbal, to deposit bail bonds of Rs200,000.

The accused pleaded through his counsel that the explosion was an accident and registration of murder case against him was illegal. He said the factory collapsed after the boiler installed in it exploded. He asked the court to release him on bail because he was not responsible for the accident. As many as 26 persons died in the explosion.

Separately, a judicial magistrate issued show cause notice to an investigation officer for delaying submission of the challan against Shan Muhammad, son of former Lahore commissioner Khusro Pervaiz. Shan is linked to the murder of his friend Hamza, the only son of trader Fazal Elahi.

The investigation officer of Burki police station appeared before the magistrate on Thursday and sought more time for submission of the case challan. Magistrate Sardar Imran Yousaf took notice of inefficiency of the officer and issued him a show cause notice.

The magistrate directed the investigator to submit the challan on July 25 along with his explanation to the show cause notice.

Fazal Elahi got registered the FIR against Shan and submitted that on the day of incident Hamza made a phone call to Shan and left home. Later, Elahi said, he came to know through a phone call that his son had been gunned down in DHA, Phase VI.