RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: A special court for Control of Narcotics Substance (CNS) on Saturday dismissed bail petition of former law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan in 15-kg heroin recovery case.

The court held that “the challan has been submitted against the petitioner/accused and his trial has been commenced, resultantly no case for grant of bail is made out”.

The court while dismissing the bail application observed that the petitioner had already exhausted all his grounds available to him and no fresh ground was made out.

The counsel of Rana Sana contended that the record provided by the Punjab Safe City Authority (PSCA) about the vehicle of the petitioner/accused negated the whole prosecution story. He said the arrest of the petitioner from Ravi Toll Plaza allegedly took place at 15:25 pm while the vehicle could be seen in the CCTV footage of PSCA at Canal Road within 10 minutes. He said the facts contradicted the whole story narrated in the FIR regarding interception of the petitioner and others.

The counsel argued that the record showed that the occurrence had not taken place as alleged by the prosecution and it was a case of further inquiry.

The court observed that application for summoning CCTV footage record from the PSCA was submitted in the court much earlier even before the filing of the first bail petition. Therefore, the ground of the video record was already available with the petitioner at the time of filing previous bail plea.

The counsel further said the petitioner was also a chronic cardiac patient and underwent open heart surgery in past.

However, an ANF special prosecutor opposed the petition and argued that no fresh ground for the bail was available to the petitioner. He said a duty judge had already dismissed first bail petitioner of the petitioner.

The prosecutor argued that section 51 of the Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997 also restrained grant of bail. He said a huge quantity of heroin had been recovered from the petitioner; therefore, no case for grant of bail was made out.