PESHAWAR, Aug 15: The National Accountability Bureau, NWFP, on Thursday arrested Anwarur Rehman, father of a former MNA Haji Naseemur Rehman, and a director in the Saleem Group of Industries, from his residence in Mardan.

The accused was produced before an accountability court presided over by Miftauddin Khan, which remanded him in the custody of NAB for 12 days.

The accused is charged with possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He and his partners have allegedly been involved in concealing their actual income and deceitfully, fraudulently, and dishonestly causing a loss of Rs900 million to the exchequer.

The NAB has claimed that apart from the accused, the arrest warrants of five other directors of the group — his three sons namely, Naseemur Rehman, Masoodur Rehman and Mujeebur Rehman, and two grandsons, Qaiser Saleem and Asad Saleem — have already been issued by the chairman NAB. The accused Naseemur Rehman has already been sentenced in absentia to three years rigorous imprisonment for evading arrest.

The bureau claimed that initially, the accused confessed to having caused substantial loss to the exchequer and agreed to an out-of-court settlement with the NAB Peshawar by depositing Rs10 million as advance. However, after some time he backed out from the deal and went into hiding.

After some time, the NAB stated, the accused resurfaced and approached the chairman NAB for plea bargain, but did not deposit the money, and absconded.

The NAB has alleged that the factories in the Saleem Group of Industries had been earning in millions but showed a loss to the government.