KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi has granted interim bail to Abdul Qadir, owner of M/s Star Traders, against the surety bonds of Rs 500,000 in a sales tax evasion case of about Rs 15 million.
During the hearing, the suspect appeared before the court along with his counsel who moved the petition for bail and argued that his client was innocent and was falsely been implicated in this case. However, counsel for the Customs Department opposed the bail petition. After hearing the arguments, the court granted him bail on the grounds that a pay order of Rs 3.75 million has already been deposited with sales tax authority and remaining amount Rs 1.12 million has been deposited through post-dated cheques.
The court also directed the sales tax authority not to encash pay order and post-dated cheques deposited by the accused till further orders by the court.
According to the prosecution, above mentioned suspect and Muhammad Altaf Hussain, owner of M/s Tuba International, and others were involved in sales tax evasion to the tune of Rs 15 million and a case was registered against them under section 2 (37) of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.