PESHAWAR, Sept 28: An accountability court here on Friday acquitted an excise inspector, Jehandad Khan, accused of accumulating illegal assets.

The court presided over by Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani observed that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the defendant. The court observed that the properties mentioned by the National Accountability Bureau in the reference could not be proved to be earned by the defendant through corruption and corrupt practices.

After Azad Bukht, general manager Pakistan Telecommunication Company, Jehandad Khan is the second government official acquitted by any of the four accountability courts functioning here since 1999.

In the reference the NAB had alleged that the accused possessed assets to the tune of Rs55.252 million, which were disproportionate to his known sources of income. The bureau claimed that the accused had a poor family background.

It was alleged that he was appointed temporarily as a sub-inspector in excise and taxation department in 1981 for a period of one year. It was added that he managed to acquire regular employment status as well as the patronage influential quarters of the society.

The NAB had charged him of possessing two multi-storey plazas in Peshawar Cantonment and had shares in run-ning business managed by his family.