KARACHI: The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to three suspects in a case pertaining to the smuggling of antiques worth $10 million out of the country.
Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi approved the bail for Raheel Shakeel, Muhammad Javed and Irfan Ahmed against surety of Rs 200,000 each.
Three suspects, represented by Advocate Aqeel Ahmed, moved the bail applications seeking their release.
According to the prosecution, on December 17, 2015, the Customs Preventive staff intercepted four passengers identified as Raheel Shakeel, Muhammad Javed and Irfan Ahmed and Faisal Jamal along with their collective baggage comprising 11 packages.
The examination of their baggage was conducted after completion of all legal formalities but nothing objectionable was recovered from nine packages, however, examination of two wooden boxes led to the recovery of very old articles of metals, statues, stone leaves and pottery statues. The antiques said to be made of precious metal studded with stones and iron blades etc belonged to very old age and pre-historic era and it was firmly believed that these items may fall within the specification of antiques.
Therefore, both the wooden boxes were detained for examination and expert opinion as well as valuation by the Archaeology Department, Government of Sindh, Karachi. Subsequently, a letter No P-12/2015-JIAP dated December 17, 2015 was sent to the Archaeological Department director, for physical examination of the objects and expert opinion with regard to the status, confirmation and valuation etc.
A team of three experts visited International Departure at Jinnah International Airport on December 18, 2015 and conducted examination of the said objects and finally they submitted a report vide letter No 20/6/2015 (Custom)-1095 dated December 18, 2015 whereby, it has been confirmed that the said items are of antiquity and belonged to the pre-historic era, worth about $10 million, thus falls within the purview of Antiques Act, 1975.
