PESHAWAR: An accountability court here on Saturday dismissed a plea bargain application of an arrested revenue officer, Saeed Khan, who had agreed to deposit Rs22.38 million with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in return for his release in a case of possession of illegal assets.

The NAB`s chairman has already accepted the plea bargain application of Saeed Khan, who was dubbed by the bureau as `king of corruption`, and had referred it to the accountability court for approval, whichis mandatory under the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The court presided over by judge Mr Tariq Yousafzai observed that while accepting the plea bargain of the suspect the NAB chairman had not mentioned the reasons why the amount of Rs22.38 million was accepted and whether the properties acquired by the suspect were worth the said amount or more than that.

The judge observed that NAB could again refer the application for the approval of the court after recording proper reasons for the acceptance of the plea and also giving details of the properties owned by the suspect and their true worth. The court sent the suspect to prison on a 14-day judicial remand.

The suspect, who served for many years against the post of patwari and was promoted as girdawar in 2012, enjoyed the reputation as influential official of the revenue department having the backing of political figures and was known for posting patwarisof his choice on lucrative positions. At the time of his arrest he was posted at the Peshawar deputy commissioner`s office and was on leave.

The suspect was arrested by the NAB, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, on the charges of possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. He had given an application for plea bargain soon after his arrest on April 3.

The NAB`s chairman accepted his application under Section 25(b) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999.

The special prosecutor of NAB, Aftab Khan, appeared with the suspect and stated that the NAB would have no objection if the court approved his plea bargain application.

Earlier, his application was referred to the accountability court presided over by Judge Ibrahim Khan. However, due to personal reasons he referred the application to the present judge, Tariq Yousafzai.Following his arrest, the NAB alleged that he had accumulated huge assets worth millions of rupees, both moveable and immoveable properties.

The NAB had claimed that the preliminary findings established the allegations about the large-scale corruption by the accused.

CUSTODY EXTENDED: An accountability court remanded into further custody of the NAB for five days three persons, including a former director general of Provincial Housing Authority (PHA), allegedly involved in embezzlement of over Rs400 million while acquiring land for a project not approved by the government.

The three suspects, including former DG of PHA Javed Ahmad, ex-LAC Naveed Qadir and their alleged front man Mohammad Asif, were produced before the court of judge Ibrahim Khan by a NAB official after completion of their earlier five days custody.