LAHORE, July 20: An accountability court on Saturday extended remand of two directors and a manager of the Khyber Tractors Limited in a corruption reference till August 3.

The court observed on a NAB application that prosecution had a right for physical custody of the accused for deeper appreciation of the evidence collected during the preliminary probe.

The NAB had claimed to have recorded the statements of 11 affectees which, according to it, could prove to be a strong evidence against the accused.

The court rejected the contention of the accused regarding a case pending before the Supreme Court on the same charges.

The court observed that the case pending before the SC had no relevance with the present one and the NAB had not intervened in the judicial matter already pending for adjudication before SC.

The two directors, Asif Sharif and Khalid Sharif, along with development manager Hamdard Khalid had challenged their arrest on the grounds that they had been wrongly implicated in the reference without any concrete evidence. They had blamed the government policies for rendering the company incapable of reimbursing the payments made by the prospective buyers.

It has been alleged that Khyber Tractors advertised booking of Ursus 2312 tractors in the local press at Rs230,000 each. An advance payment of Rs70,000 was demanded from the applicants while the remaining amount was to be paid in instalments.

According to the investigations, 1,430 people paid Rs275,319,322 for the purchase of tractors. The NAB alleged that more than 740 applicants never received the delivery or their money.