LAHORE: The Special Federal Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling adjourned the hearing of mobile phone smuggling case.
Earlier, the court had approved the extension in judicial remand of an accused arrested by the customs authorities from the Allama Iqbal International airport while making an attempt to smuggle the cell-phones from China into Lahore.
The Investigation and Prosecution (I&P) team of the Customs Lahore had presented accused Naveed Bhatti before the special court and asked for his physical remand of five days to investigate further regarding the smuggling. After the completion of physical remand, the court remanded him to jail for judicial trial which has extended it again for 14 days.
As per sources of Customs Today, Naveed Bhatti was arrested by the Customs Preventive when they impounded 170 assorted android mobile-phones from his luggage at the Lahore Airport. On suspicion, the customs authorities intercepted accused Naveed Bhatti while using the green channel.
The mobile phones were hidden in the bottles of water which the passenger claimed had brought from Saudi Arabia, it was added. The sources said the total value of the mobile phones is Rs05million. The customs authorities, after confiscating mobiles, registered a case against him and further prosecution is underway.
It is pertinent to mention here that due to transfer of Chaudary Ameed Muhammad Khan numbers of cases are getting late for hearing. The Customs Court hears 17 cases on Saturday. Meanwhile, Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling heard five important cases and adjourned most of them until the next hearing.
At least five different kinds of cases, including tax evasion, customs, smuggling and narcotics, were scheduled for the day.
A case of Tariq Kazmi, allegedly involved in mobile smuggling, was also scheduled for the hearing in which the court recorded the statements of the parties and adjourned it for next week.
The cases of Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Jhelum were scheduled for the day.
