KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi has sent a suspect, Muhammad Rafiq I/c WeBOC Collection Counter, OG-II, National Bank of Pakistan, Customs House Branch, Karachi, to Customs Department’s lockup on physical remand who was allegedly involved in misusing pay-order worth Rs 2.3 million.
the court also directed the investigation officer to produce him on the next date of hearing along with a progress report.
According to the FIR, Customs official received the information that a pay-order number 2626509 dated 03/01/2017 of Rs2.3million was issued by Meezan Bank Limited Karachi into account of M/s NSB Bearing private limited, authorised importer, was illegally and allegedly deposited into PD Account of FA Corporation, whose owner is accused Faiz Sarwar.
According to the prosecution, Muhammad Rafiq was actively involved in this illegal depositing of pay-order. “At the time of deposit of funds into PD Accounts by the NBP, the WeBOC system asks the NTN number of PD Account Holder in which funds are to be deposited. After entering the NTN number by the bank official, the WeBOC system displays the name of the PD account holder. It is the responsibility of functionary of NBP concerned to check the PD account holder’s name displayed by the WeBO system and the name of authorised importer on pay-order.”
The FIR revealed that only, if both names are matched, the pay-order should be accepted for PD account deposit otherwise it is not allowed. It claimed that Muhammad Rafiq entered the NTN number of accused Faiz Sarwar despite the fact that the pay-order was in the name of M/s NSB Bearing (Pvt) Ltd.
The FIR also mentioned that co-accused Muhammad Rafiq has submitted false information into the WeBOC system electronically in order to defraud the government from its legitimate asset and committed a fiscal fraud as defined under Sections 32A of the Customs Act-1969 punishable under clause 14A of Section 156(1) of the Customs Act-1969.
