KARACHI: The Customs Court acquitted suspects namely Ubaidullah son of Allah Bukhsh, Muhammad Toheed Malik son of Malik Javed Iqbal and Mir Hammal Khan son of Abdullah Khan, who were nominated in first information report (FIR) for mega mis-declaration scam.
On 24 December, 2020, Customs Today received a detailed judgment released by customs court, according to which court approved application under section 265-K Cr.PC filed by the above mentioned suspects and court observes that “there is no probability of the conviction of the accused persons, it will be sheer wastage of time to examine the prosecution witness and to proceed the case, therefore, acquit accused persons for the charge under section 265K Cr.P.C. Their bail bonds stand cancelled & sureties are discharged”.
According to the prosecution, information was received in the that certain importers are involved in import/ clearance of used machinery items by mis-declaration of description, HS Code, quantity, weight and value aiming at evasion of leviable duty and taxes besides clearance of used items in violation of appendix-C of the import policy order, 2016.
Accordingly, monitoring was kept on an under clearance consignment imported from south Korea by M/s M.A Impex filed through clearing agent M/s Toheed Brothers for clearance which were blocked online dated July 20, 2018 after having been cleared/ out of charged from Appraisement West Karachi.
Investigation officer had stated that re-examination was carried out on Aug 03, 2019 by the staff of DIT as a result gross mis-declaration of description, HS Code, quantity/ weight and value of the imported goods were found besides clearance of undeclared/ used banned items.
The accused persons in connivance with each other had evaded government exchequer to the tune of Rs1,332,042. The notices under section 171 of the customs act, 1969 were issued against accused persons and the FIR was lodged.