KARACHI: The Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi awarded 20 months imprisonment and fine of Rs25,00,000 to suspect namely Khurram Aftab Vohra, who was booked in a case of sales tax returns fraud case.
During the hearing, counsel for the suspect argued that his client is innocent and was falsely implicated in this case, he argued that prosecution has not provided any evidence against his client, therefore, court may acquit him from this case, however, counsel for the customs department argued that prosecution has submitted concrete evidences against him which are enough for conviction, therefore, court convict him as capital punishment.
After hearing the arguments, court announced its judgment and says that ” I take a lenient view and convict accused and sentence him to the period form 20th Fab 202 to 20 November 2013 which he has already undergone and impose fine to Rs25,00,000″. If suspect fails to pay fine amount, he shall suffer further one year simple imprisonment in Central Jail Karachi.
According to the prosecution, case was registered against him as sale tax returns fraud for generating bogus input tax credit/ refunds in favor of recipients of such invoices thereby involved in filing of incorrect and fake sale tax returns as under section 33 (3) (5) (8) (11c) (13) (16) (18) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.
