PESHAWAR, June 17: A local court on Friday dismissed bail petition of head of a non-governmental organisation charged with misappropriating around Rs70 million by deceiving dozens of his employees as well as the people affected by floods and violence.

The court of judicial magistrate, Danish Khan Afridi observed that the accused, Nadir Khan, was not entitled to the concession of bail.

The accused, who is chairman of Pak Community Development Organisation, is charged in an FIR registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under section 419, 420, 468 and 471 of Pakistan Penal Code. The case was registered on the complaint of Noor Mohammad Afridi and 15 other employees of the said organisation.

The complainants alleged that the accused had set up the NGO and hired services of around 325 persons for carrying out relief activities in the flood-hit districts of Nowshera, Charsadda and Swat.

They alleged that the accused had received a sum of Rs10,000 from each of these employees on the pretext of security deposit and had promised that the said amount would be returned back.

Advocate Arif Jan appeared for the complainants and contended that six other office-bearers of the said NGO had also been charged in the case but they had been absconding. He stated that the complainants had also recorded their statements before the magistrate under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. He added that the accused had deceived hundreds of affected persons and he did not deserve any leniency.

The petitioner's counsel contended that the complainants were never employees of the petitioner and they had signed a form that they would join the organisation as volunteers. He added that the petitioner had never received any money from them on the name of security. He added that if at all any misappropriation took place it was by the complainants.

BAIL REJECTED: The Peshawar High Court on Friday turned down bail petition of a person charged with smuggling narcotics to Punjab from the tribal areas.

A single bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan directed the trial court to conclude trial of the accused, Imtiaz Khan, within three months. The accused was arrested by officials of Pishtakhara police station on March 31, 2011.