KARACHI: The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling has granted bail to the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan’s former deputy director, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the Rs 35 billion gold smuggling scam.
Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashidi approved the bail for Muhammad Shakeel against surety bonds to the tune of Rs 2 million on the grounds of statutory delay.
The FIA authorities had arrested the accused on June 2, 2014, for giving his authorisation to the export of gold on fake customs clearance documents, which caused huge loss to the national exchequer.
Advocate Zakir Leghari, the applicant’s counsel, stated that the accused was completely innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. He added Shakeel had granted export permissions after fulfilling all required formalities. He said the accused was not the beneficiary of the alleged illegal export, thus, he could not be charged with committing the offence.
He told the judge that the accused proprietors of the private firms had cheated and exported the consignment by fraud.
Zakir said that Shakeel was behind bars since June 2, 2014, and had caused no delay in proceedings of the case.
He, therefore, is entitled to be released on bail on the grounds of statutory delay.
Opposing the applicant’s bail plea, the FIA counsel submitted that the accused was involved in the offence and caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.
The FIA Corporate Crime Circle had registered an FIR under Section 156(1)(8), 32/32-A punishable under Section 156(1)(14) of Customs Act 1969.
In the FIR, it was stated that in pursuance of the inquiry No 3/2014 it was established accused Muhammad Shakeel, the deputy director the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, Karachi, registered the firms M/S Rayyan Collection, M/S Atta Casting, M/S Ather Jewellers and M/S Al Huda Bangles as exporters under Section 3 of the SRO 266(1)2001 dated May 7, 2001, issued by the federal government for exporting gold jewellery, silver jewellery, precious/semi-precious stones and platinum jewellery without fulfilling the mandatory formalities.
Shakeel in connivance with the accused proprietors issued authorisations to export 23-carat gold to UAE on fake E-forms, causing Rs 35 billion loss to the national exchequer.
