PESHAWAR, Feb 2: An accountability court here on Thursday sentenced two former officials of the City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD) in an accountability reference and sentenced them to varying prison terms with fines.

The court, presided over by Miftauddin Khan, sentenced former steno typist of the Land Acquisition Collector office, Firdous Khan, to seven-year of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs11.88 million. In case of non-payment of the fine, the man would have to undergo another year of imprisonment.

The second accused, Imran Wasti, who was accountant in the same office, was sentenced to three-year of rigorous imprisonment. He was fined Rs383,200 and in case of payment default, he would have to undergo another six months of imprisonment.

The court acquitted two other defendants namely Raees Mirza and Tariq Khan, who are former managers of a bank in Hayatabad Township, as the case could not be proved against them.

The convicted persons were arrested on Oct 4, 2003. The National Accountability Bureau has alleged that Firdous Khan had misappropriated an amount of Rs14.65 million through fraudulent withdrawal.

The NAB claimed that certain amounts were withdrawn in the names of different persons whose land was never acquired by the government for the Regi Lalma township. In certain cases, the accused had fraudulently increased the amount on cheques before withdrawing them and had misappropriated them.

The accused had also opened a fake account in the name of the Land Acquisition Collector and used to deposit ill-gotten money in the said account through fraudulent transfers.

The co-accused, Imran Wasti, was charged with facilitating the principal accused in the committing of the crime and had received an amount of Rs383,200 from him.

The court found them guilty of the crime and sentenced them under section 10 of the NAB Ordinance 1999. The court extended the benefit of section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code under which their period of detention prior to their conviction would be included in their prison term.