KARACHI: The Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi granted interim pre-arrest bail to accused persons namely Khurram Shahzad son of Muhammad Sharif, proprietor of M/s Diamond Fabrics and Umer Naeem, chief finance officer of M/s Diamond Fabrics who were booked in a mis-declaration and tax evasion case of Rs191,719,201.
During the hearing, both accused appeared before the court along with their counsel and moved petitions for pre-arrest bail, counsel argued that their clients are innocent and were falsely implicated in this case, who are ready to face trail, however, they have apprehension of arrest, therefore, and court may grant them bail till final disposal of this case.
After his hearing, court granted them bail and observed in its order that, “Without touching the merits of the case, ad-interim pre-arrest bail is granted to accused to furnish surety in the sum of Rs2,00,000 each with P.R bond in the like amount to the satisfaction of this court.
Court also directed accused to join investigations if and when required by the investigation officer and appear before the court on next date of hearing. Court also called the police papers and issued notice to special prosecutor for customs department for May 11, 2017
According to the prosecution, offence nature was mentioned in FIR as misuse of SRO-450 (1)/ 2001 dated 18/06/2001, through mis-declaration of description of exported goods with un-due claim of use of imported raw material in export shipments and illegal removal of dutiable imported goods from manufacturing unit without payment of duty and taxes.
Therefore, case was registered against accused in violation of section 18, 19, 32, (1) & (2), 32 (A), 79, 86, 97, 98 and 118 of the customs act, 1969 read with SRO 450 (1)/2001 dated 18/06/2001 punishable under section 156 (1) (14) (14A) (8) (59) and (62) of the Customs Act, 1969 further read with section 3, 6, 33 and 34 of the Sales Tax Act 1990 and section 148 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.
