KARACHI: National Accountability Court has extended the physical remand of clearing agents Muhammad Idress son of Yousaf, Muhammad Ali son of Muhammad Idress and Imran Khan son of Saifur Rahman and sent them to NAB custody for eight more days in mega mis-declaration and tax evasion scam.
On 20 September 2019, investigation officer produced above-mentioned suspects before the court, during the hearing, suspects claimed that they were beaten and tortured by NAB officials and they were being forced for plea bargain. Counsel for the suspects argued that NAB officials took their custody from jail without permission of NAB or Customs Court and Customs Court had already issued show cause notice to jail authority.
He further argued that same charges were fixed in FIRs of customs department and cases were pending before the customs court and according to the apex court’s orders, transfer of custody and fixing the same charges were totally illegal and malafide, therefore, the court may release them.
However, during the hearing, Shahbaz Sahotra, prosecutor for customs department argued that more than 900 containers were cleared illegally and billions of rupees tax evasion was involved in this scam, and during the hearing, suspects confessed that they were frontmen of high officials of customs department and NAB had issued call-up notices to alleged customs officials who were involved in this scam, therefore, court may grant their physical remand for further investigation.
After the hearing, court resent them to NAB custody and directed investigation officer to conduct medical tests of suspects and produce the report before the court on next date of hearing.
On 12 September 2019, Senior Superintendent Central Jail Karachi informed the customs court that above-mentioned suspects were handed over to NAB Karachi for interrogation in good health condition as per medical certificate issued by medical officer of Central Jail.
