PESHAWAR, Aug 9: An accountability court here on Friday sentenced a former patwari of National Highway Authority (NHA), Sani Gul, in absentia to three years’ rigorous imprisonment for evading arrest.

Mr Gul, resident of Dewana Baba, district Buner, was wanted in the Motorway (Nowshera section) land acquisition scam and his arrest warrants were issued by the Chairman, National Accountability Bureau, early this year.

The court, presided over by Attaullah Khan, ruled that the accused did not turn up before the court despite repeated notices and he had been wilfully evading arrest, which was a crime under the Section 31-A of the NAB Ordinance, 1999.

NAB said that while in the office of the Land Acquisition Collector, NHA, he was actively involved in commission of crimes under corruption and corrupt practices in assessment of land acquisition for M-I(Nowshera sector) including false assessment of trees and crops thereon, causing a loss of millions of rupees to the government exchequer.

He was also allegedly working as agent to his superiors in NHA and involved in receiving illegal gratifications from the beneficiaries/land owners. On one such occasion he had received fraudulently an amount of Rs925,000 as his share in the land acquisition from the land owners.