PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Monday granted bail to a man suspected of sexually abusing minor girls and selling narcotics.

Justice Qalandar Ali Khan accepted the bail petition of Farhan, a resident of Behari Colony, asking him to furnish two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

The petitioner claimed that SHO of the relevant police station had registered a concocted case against him for having grudge against him.

He said the SHO had ruined his life by leveling false allegations against him, while his media trial had distressed his family.

He is also facing charge of selling narcotics

The Gulberg police station had registered an FIR against the petitioner on Aug 30, 2018, under Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (sexual harassment), Child Protection and Welfare Act’s Section 52 (child trafficking) and Control of Narcotics Substance Act’s Section 9, and claimed that they had recovered 1.2kg of heroin from his possession.

Few days after his arrest, the police claimed that 25 cases of child sexual abuse had been reported against the suspect.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the petitioner, said SHO Taimoor Saleem had implicated his client in a fake case to settle personal scores.

He said no one had complained against his client; there existed no victim of his alleged crimes, and not a single witness had turned up against him.

The lawyer said the police claimed to have footages of CCTV cameras showing the petitioner lure girls but they didn’t produce those footages in the court.

He said the SHO had provided ‘exaggerated’ case details to media and conducted media trial of his client.

The bench had summoned the petitioner from prison and his father and brother. The judge asked the petitioner’s father to monitor the activities of his son saying the police have charged him with committing a heinous offence.

The bench had summoned the SHO, who claimed that the police had acted on the people’s complaints and had traced the suspect with the help of CCTV camera footages.

The petitioner’s counsel said if the case was based on facts, why the police failed to produce even a single complainant in the case.

In the FIR, the police claimed that they had reports about an unidentified person luring girls aged between seven and 12 years of age in different streets.

They added that the suspect used to take girls to deserted places before sexually abusing them and warning them against reporting the incidents.

The police claimed that after the suspect was arrested, they had recovered a shopping bag with 1.2kg heroin, which he used to supply to people.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2018