KARACHI: The Customs Court extended physical remand of six suspects, who were booked in a case of attempting to smuggle foreign-origin betel nuts, cigarettes, cloths and gutka, and sent them back to Customs Preventive Sukkur lock-up.
On September 22, 2018, Investigation Officer Manzoor Ahmed Mahar of Customs Preventive Sukkur reproduced the suspects namely Malook son of Khero, Muhammad Naeem son of Habibullah, Khan Bismillah Khan son of Muhammad Naeem Khan, Hayatullah son of Abdul Ghafar, Zainuddin son of Badin Khan and Saeed son of Gul Hassan before the court and informed that on an actionable information, strict instructions of Customs Hyderabad were issued to the department. In view of the closed coordination and joint operation with other law enforcement agencies on September 11, the team of ASO, Sukkur intercepted six trucks bearing registration nos: 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 informed the court that during the search, the team recovered 12,915kg betel nuts and 400kg bhoosa from TKM-096, 12220 kg betel nuts, 1465 kg One 2 One gutka made in UAE and 1190kg bhoosa from LOT-5682, 18095kg betel nuts, 3030kg cloths from TKF-617, 20785kg betel nuts, 340kg bhoosa from TKJ-739, 13845kg betel nuts, 18 carton Pine cigarettes made in Korea, 1760kg One 2 One made rein UAE and J & D gutka made in India from E-7845, 15030kg betel nuts and 390kg bhoosa from TKD-954. He said that total duty and taxes of betel nuts a Rs4,862,647 and bhoosa Rs3,701,280.
Investigation officer argued that prosecution needs further investigations from them for arrest of real owners of said goods therefore, court may extend their physical remand. After the hearing, court sent them on physical remand and directed investigation officer to produce them on next date of hearing.
