KARACHI: The Customs Court granted bail to 11 suspects against the surety of Rs100,000, who were arrested in a case of attempting to smuggle non-duty paid betel nuts.
On December 11, 2018, counsels for accused moved bail applications and argued that their clients are innocents and were falsely implicated in this case, who are ready to face trial; therefore, the court may grant their bail till final judgment in this case.
Earlier, investigation officer of Anti-Smuggling Organization, Customs Hyderabad produced suspects Deen Muhammad son of Abdul Raheem, Salih Muhammad son of Lal Gul, Hashim Khan son of Sultan Muhammad, Muhammad Usman son of Lal Muhammad, Asmatullah son of Paidin, Muhammadullah son of Ghulam Jilani, Sher Khan son of Shadi Khan, Rafique Khan son of Muhammad Anwar, Muhammad Umar son of Haji Muhammad, Saifullah son of Abdul Ali and Shahid Khan son of Haji Baqar Khan before the court.
He submitted that on credible information, a team of ASO Hyderabad intercepted trucks bearing registration no TKC-394 and TKN-513 coming from Quetta to Karachi and recovered 201 bags weighing 16,470kg foreign-origin betel nuts and 164 bags weighing 16,845kg foreign-origin betel nuts respectively.
He stated that during the raid, member of customs team asked suspects to produce lawful documents of said goods; however, they failed to produce any documents; therefore, the goods were seized and suspects were also taken into custody.
