Student held for drugs gets bail

A GRADE nine pupil in Mul-Baiyer, Western Highlands, charged with possession of marijuana, has been granted a K200 bail by the Mt Hagen District Court.
Magistrate Donald Joseph asked the pupil, Steward Peng, 18, from Endamang village in Baiyer, to return to court on Sept 4 with a confirmation letter from his headmaster that he was a student.
Peng was arrested on Aug 13 in Baiyer.
He was locked up for two nights in the Baiyer Police Station before being transferred to Mt Hagen police cell and yesterday appeared in court from police custody.
Peng pleaded not guilty and told the court that the drug in his pocket was not his.
He said the trousers he was wearing at that time was not his either and it belonged to a man who left it in the house.
“We, young boys, sleep in one house. I saw the trousers and wore it,” he told the court.
In another case, Joseph ordered police prosecutors to investigate and bring a policeman or woman who released a suspect in police custody at the Hagen Police Station to court.
Joseph said this after he called suspect Silas Mirako’s name and two police prosecutors told him that the suspect was not in the police cell.
He told the policemen that the suspect was supposed to remain in police custody and appear in court.
The two policemen told the court that they didn’t know who released the suspect but, Joseph told them to find out and bring the officer concern to his court.