PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to two persons arrested on charges of killing their female relative on pretext of honour in Lower Dir district around three months ago.

A single-member bench consisting of Justice Shahid Khan accepted bail pleas of the two accused persons named Wali Khan and Awal Said observing that facts and circumstances of the occurrence had led the court to the conclusion that the allegations against them needed further probe and it made them entitled to the concession of bail.

The bench directed both the petitioners to furnish two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

The petitioner Wali Khan was brother of the deceased woman, whereas Awal Said was her husband.

Both of them were charged by mother of the deceased woman named Amir Zadgai, who had recorded her statement under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure duringinvestigation.She had alleged that Awal Said had committed theoffence on behest of her son Wali Khan.

However, she later on retracted from her allegations stating that now she had satisfied herself that the two accused persons were not involved in the murder of her daughter.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Khal police station in Dir Lower district on Feb 8, 2023, under section 302, 311, 201, 204 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIR was registered by additional SHO Sahibzada Khan who stated that he had received information that body of a female was lying in a well inside a government primary school. He stated that he reached the spot and retrieved the body of the deceased, which was partially decomposed.

He claimed that he gathered information from the spot according to which the deceased was divorced twice and her reputation as not good in the area.

He added that a brother of the deceased named Wali Khan was watchman at the said school and he had killed her on pretext of honour and dumped the body in the well so as to concealevidence.

`The court does agree that the event in hand is prima facie in its kind of honour killing but close perusal of the record made available would transpire that the event in hand is an unseen occurrence and during the investigation positive anddirect evidence regarding the commission of the offence has not been collected,` the bench observed.

BAIL REJECTED: The bench turned down bail plea of an accused arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a minor boy of 10 in Swat district around two years ago.

The accused, Salman Khan, was seeking bail on statutory grounds that the case was sent for trial on Mar 21, 2021, but despite passage of over two years the trial had yet to conclude.

His counsel contended that he was entitled to bail under section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The alleged victim had stated that he was forcibly taken to his home by the accused and after sexually assaulting him he asked him to remain silent or he would kill him.

The bench observed that the petitioner had allegedly been charged for committing unnatural act with a minor, which attracted the fourth proviso to Section 497 (1) of the CrPC, under which the concession of bail on ground of delay in trial would not be extended to an accused who, in the opinion of the court, was a hardened, desperate or dangerous criminal.

The bench directed the trial court to proceed ahead with the trial on day-to-day basis, however, if inconvenient, the trial court may allow the next date of hearing in consultation with the defence counsel.