KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi has approved pre-arrest bail to another suspect namely Muhammad Haris Siddiqui, Manager Corporate Sales and Accounts of the M/s Digicom (Q Mobile), who was booked for attempting to smuggle assorted (Q-Mobile) mobile phones and other goods in the garb of LED lights.
The court also issued notices to the Customs Department and its prosecutor to file their comments on the next date of hearing.
During the hearing, the suspect filed a petition for bail and argued that he was falsely implicated in this case, and that he was ready to face trail, however, he had apprehension of arrest, therefore, the court might approve pre-arrest bail till final order in this case. After the arguments, the court granted him pre-arrest bail against the surety bonds of Rs 500,000 and directed him to appear before the court on the next date of hearing for confirmation of the bail.
According to the interim charge sheet, on a credible information, Anti-Smuggling Organization (HQ0 MCC (P) Karachi raided at Sadder Central Plaza, Karachi and found that one container no-KKFU-72555703 loaded on a trawler no TLT-374 was parked there, search was carried out accordingly in presence two musheers which revealed the presence of huge quantity of mobile phones stuffed in the aforesaid container.
Court was informed that subsequently the said container loaded on the vehicle was brought at ASO/HQ, thorough search was conducted in the presence of said musheers, resultantly recovered 27200 Q-Mobile phones, 35790 other assorted brands and models mobile phones, 531 Amazon Tablets which were smuggled by the suspect in the garb of LED Lights, tentative value of the smuggled goods is Rs284,470,000 and suspect evaded the duty and taxes in the tune of Rs 103,702,340 approximately.
Case was registered against suspects namely Zeeshan Akhtar son of Mian Pervaz Akhtar, Zeeshan son of Yousaf, Kashif Hussain son of Kazim Hussain and Muhammad Azam Hussain son of Fazal Hussain and others for violation under section 2 (s) 16, 32 (1) & (2) 32A, 79, 80, 157 and 178 of the customs act, 1969 read with import policy order 2016 punishable under section 156 (1) (8) (89) (9) (9) (14) (14A) (43) (44) (45) & 156 (2) ibid read with section 3, 6, 7A, 33, 34 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, further read with section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
