PESHAWAR, July 2: An accountability appellate bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal of a former naib tehsildar of revenue department and upheld his conviction by an accountability court.

The bench, comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Ijaz Afzal, maintained the sentence of three years rigorous imprisonment awarded to him by the trial court.

The bench, however, reduced the fine against him from Rs1.6 million to Rs1.2 million. The court observed that the prosecution had brought enough evidence against the appellant to prove his guilt.

The accountability bench had reserved its order last year after completion of arguments. The trial court has convicted the appellant for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income, which is a crime under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance, 1999.

BAIL REJECTED: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court rejected a writ petition of a former tehsildar of revenue department, Mosam Khan, seeking bail on ground of delay in conclusion of his trial.

The petitioner has been facing trial before an accountability court on charges of registering mutations during ban imposed by the government.

The petitioner was earlier charged in two other cases. He was convicted in a case pertaining to possession of illegal assets by an accountability court, but was acquitted by the high court when his appeal was accepted.

In the second case of Ring Road land acquisition, he was charged along with Federal Minister Aftab Sherpao and former senator Gul Sher. They were recently acquitted in that case.

Advocate Sattar Khan appeared for the petitioner before the bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi. He argued that the petitioner was arrested on Nov 24, 2000, and since then he had been behind bars.