PESHAWAR: An accountability court on Tuesday convicted two persons for cheating general public in the garb of investing their money in Islamic mode of businesses and sentenced them to three years imprisonment and fined them collectively Rs9.9 million.

The judge, Ishtiaq Ahmad Khan, ruled that the prosecution had proved its case against the two accused persons named Qazi Mohammad Abu Bakar, a resident of Abbottabad, and Abdul Basit of Rawalpindi.

The court, however, acquitted another accused Qazi Mohammad Naeem due to lack of evidence against him.

The convict Abu Bakar was fined Rs6.45 million, whereas Abdul Basit was fined Rs34.53 million.

The judge extended benefit of section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the convicts under which the period of their detention prior to their conviction will be counted in their prison term.

The court also declared an absconding accused Abdur Rehman Shoaib as proclaimed offender and issued his perpetual arrest warrants.

The National Accountability Bureau, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had filed a reference of Rs47.11 million against the accused persons.

The NAB had claimed that during course of inquiry it was revealed that the accused persons lured general public to invest their hard earned money in their fake company under the name Islamic Investment Company Ltd promising that they would be paid huge profits on their investment.

The accused after a few months not only stopped paying profits but also refused to pay back original invested money of innocent people and disappeared from the scene.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018