PESHAWAR, Sept 23: Accepting an appeal, an accountability bench of the Peshawar High Court here on Monday acquitted a sub-divisional police officer (SDPO), Mahmood Hussain, earlier convicted by an accountability court.

The bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Abdur Rauf Lughmani also accepted writ petition filed by Sufi Noor Ilahi, father of the appellant, his mother and sister, challenging confiscation of their properties by the accountability court.

The bench had reserved its judgment on June 14 after the completion of arguments by the appellant’s counsel, Qazi Mohammad Anwer and special prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau, Qazi Rasheedul Haq. He was convicted by the accountability court on March 20 and was sentenced to five years imprisonment with a fine of Rs1,36,000.

The accused was SDPO, Charsadda, at the time of his arrest. He remained engaged in a marathon legal battle for proving his innocence. His counsel had contended that the appellant belonged to a well-off family and was victimized by the NAB. He argued that the properties belonging to his parents and widow-sister were mentioned by the NAB in its reference.

During the proceedings the court had also observed that the father of the deceased possessed properties in 1950s and 60s and now the NAB had been trying to prove that he was a pauper.

The appellant was first convicted by the accountability court on Nov 6, 2000, on charges of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment along with fine. The appellant then filed appeal before the high court, which set aside that verdict on June 28, 2001, and remanded the case back to the trial court.

The accountability court again convicted him on March 20, 2002 and he again challenged that verdict before the high court through an ehtesab appeal.