NEW DELHI: Custom officer of Division Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Kate Kai-Kotey, has been charged to serving two Indian nationals to evade $263,277.14 import duty on 30,074 bags of rice.
Kate, who was in charge of a customs bonded house which contained the 30,074 bags of rice owned by Mentouf Khan and Murtaza Khan, both Indians, allegedly charged the Indians GH¢0.20 for each bag smuggled from the warehouse.
According to investigators, Mentouf in addition to various sums of money he had paid to Kate, allegedly credited an additional GH¢500 to Kate’s private account for aiding him to remove the uncustomed goods from the bonded warehouse.
The offence was committed between January 8, 2012 and February 10, 2014.
The three were yesterday put before the Circuit Court in Accra, presided over by Mr Francis Obiri and charged with various offences.
Kate has been charged with three counts of abetment of crime, falsification of account and corruption by public officer.
Mentouf and Murtaza were both charged with a count each of taking unentered goods while Mentouf faced an additional charge of corruption of public officer.
Kate and Mentouf have pleaded not guilty to the charges and were admitted to bail after their lawyer, Mr Yaw Boateng Gyan, pleaded with the court to grant them bail.
Kate was granted bail in the sum of GH¢20,000 with two sureties, one to be justified while Mentouf was admitted to a GH¢750,000 bail with three sureties, one to be justified.
Mentouf was also ordered to hand over his passport to the registrar of the court. As part of the bail conditions, his sureties must include a civil servant with a net salary of not less than GH¢1,500.
Murtaza was absent resulting in the court directing him to report on the next adjourned date.
The court adjourned the case to February 26, 2015 for hearing.
