KARACHI: The Customs Court sent six suspects to Customs Sukkur on physical remand, who were booked in a case of attempting to smuggle foreign-origin betel nuts, cigarettes, cloths and gutka.
On September 13, 2018, Investigation Officer Manzoor Ahmed Mahar produced suspects namely Malook son of Khero, Muhammad Naeem son of Habibullah, Khan Bismillah Khan son of Muhammad Naeem Khan, Hayatullah son of Abdul Ghaffar, Zainuddin son of Badin Khan and Saeed son of Gul Hassan before the court and informed that on an actionable information, strict instructions of MCC, Hyderabad issued to the department and in view of the closed coordination and joint operation with other law enforcement agencies on Sep 11, the Sukkur ASO team intercepted six trucks bearing registration numbers TKM-096, LOT-5682, TKF-617, TKJ-739, E-7845 and TKD-954 loaded with smuggled foreign-origin betel nuts, cigarettes, cloths and gutka.
He further informed the court that during the search, MCC recovered 12915 kilogram betel nuts and 400 kilogram bhoosa from TKM-096, 12220 kilogram betel nuts, 1465 kilogram One 2 One gutka (made in UAE) and 1190 kilogram bhoosa from LOT-5682, 18095 kilogram betel nuts, 3030 kilogram cloths from TKF-617, 20785 kilogram betel nuts, 340 kilogram bhoosa from TKJ-739, 13845 kg betel nuts, 18 carton Pine cigarettes made in Korea, 1760 kg One 2 One made in UAE and J & D gutka made in India from E-7845, 15030 kg betel nuts and 390 kg bhoosa from TKD-954.
He said that total duty and taxes of betel nuts involved Rs4,862,647 and bhoosa Rs3,701,280. He submitted that all suspects are drivers of the said vehicles and prosecution needs further investigations from them for arrest of real owners of said goods; therefore, court may send them to physical remand.
After the hearing, court sent them on physical remand and directed investigation officer to produce them on next date of hearing.
