KARACHI: The Model Customs Collectorate MCC Appraisement-East and MCC Appraisement-West, while following the directives of Chief Collector Appraisement-South Nasir Masroor Ahmed, have geared up their investigation into the import of banned antibiotic namely “Cefixime” from India.
Sources told Customs Today that the field formations collectorate, during scrutiny of the clearance data, has detected that around 83 consignments of banned antibiotic “Cefixime” were cleared from 2012 to 2014.
Sources further informed that the commercial importers namely Chemi Zone, Pure Private Limited and Zam Internationals with the active connivance of the clearing agent namely Muhammad Hussain Rajwani of Rajab Ali & Sons were allegedly involved in clearance of banned antibiotic consignments.
The sources disclosed Customs Today that the authorities concerned of the Collectorates i.e. MCC Appraisement-East and MCC Appraisement-West have registered six FIRs in the initial stage against those unscrupulous elements who were involved in this heinous crime.
They further said that the Collectorates are mulling over to include Customs officials and laboratory staff into investigation process in order to reach at any conclusion.
The sources further said that the initial investigation into the matter revealed that the importers and clearing agents managed to escape from the country and they are right now in United Kingdom (UK) and China.
“The Customs authorities have all options including to contact with Interpol and putting the names of accused on Exit Control List (ECL) in order to arrest the criminals”, sources added. The sources further informed that the Chief Collector Appraisement-South has given directives to the authorities concerned of the Collectorate to leave no stone unturned in order to investigate the matter thoroughly.
It is pertinent to mention here that the authorities concerned of Appraising Intelligence Branch (AIB) of MCC Appraisement-West is the first Collectorate to detect the importation of banned antibiotic consignment in the year-2014.
The AIB has also registered an FIR against the accused Ziauddin of Chemi Zone and clearing agent Muhammad Hussain Rajwani of Rajab Ali & Sons in their deliberately and willfully involvement in clearance of the consignment of “Cefixime”, antibiotic from India in the month of November-2014.
In the FIR, the authorities concerned of AIB were of the view that some unscrupulous importers were involved in clearance of certain items from India which were otherwise not importable in terms of Appendix-G of the Import Policy Order-2013 in vogue.
The AIB officials concerned in the registered FIR stated that the importer Cemi Zone violated the provision of Section 16 and guilty of offence as defined under Section 32, 32A and 192 of the Customs Act, 1969, punishable under clauses 9, 14, 14A, 86 and 90 of the Section 156 ibid, read with Section 1 of Section3 of the Import 7, Export Control Act, 1950 and Appendix-G of the Import Policy Order-2013 as notified vide SRO193(I)/2013.
