KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi has granted interim pre-arrest bails to two suspects, Naeem Ahmed S/o Shamusuddin and Mohsin S/o Abdul Ghaffar, who were booked for allegedly removing and misusing a pay-order of Rs 2.4 million from the Securities Section of the collectorate.
The court also directed the suspects to join the investigation if and when required by the investigation officer and appear before the court on the next date of hearing. The court also called the police papers and issued notice to the special prosecutor for Customs Department.
During the hearing, above named accused appeared before the court along with their counsel and moved an application for pre-arrest bail. After their hearing, the court granted their bails and ordered them to furnish surety in the sum of Rs200000 each with P.R bond in the like amount to the satisfaction of this court.
According to the prosecution, as information was received that pay-order has been remove illegally from Securities Section of the collectorate and deposited into the PD Accounts of the unauthorized delinquent importers illegally, personal deposit or pact-deposit account is a facility by which government allows the users of WeBOC system (traders as well as customs agents) to deposit their funds into the government treasury in advance.
Investigation officer said a pay-order number P.O. No: 99352567843 dated 02/12/2016 issued by Meezan Bank situated at M.A. Jinnah Road Branch Karachi on account of M/s Qamar and Co (NTN 2442089), authorized importer, was illegally and allegedly deposited into PD Account of Malik Corporation (NTN 4292395-6) whose owner is accused Malik Sarfaraz Nawaz.
Saleem Khan added that the initial investigation revealed that Naeem Attar was actively involved in this illegal depositing of pay-order. He mentioned that at the time of deposit of funds into the PD Accounts by the NBP, the WeBOC system asks the NTN number of PD Account Holder into which funds are to be deposited. After entering the NTN number by the bank official, the WeBOC system displays name of the PD Account Holder.
“It is the responsibility of functionary of NBP concerned to check the PD Account Holder’s name displayed by the WeBO system and the name of authorized importer on pay-order.”
Saleem Khan told this correspondent that only if both names are matched, the pay-order should be accepted for the PD account deposit otherwise it is not allowed. Naeem Attar entered the NTN number of accused Malik Sarfaraz Nawaz despite the fact that the pay-order was in the name of M/s Qamar and Co.
He also mentioned that co-accused Naeem Attar has submitted false information to WeBOC system electronically in order to defraud on the government from its legitimate asset and committed a fiscal fraud as defined under Sections 32A of the Customs Act-1969 punishable under clause 14A of Section 156(1) of the Customs Act-1969.
