KARACHI: A Customs Court has granted pre-arrest bail to a suspect allegedly involved in a sales tax evasion case.
Customs Court judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi approved the pre-arrest bail to Taimur Asif Khan s/o Asif Ali Khan who was booked in over Rs 6.11 million sales tax evasion case.
During the hearing, counsel for the accused/ applicant filed an application for pre-arrest bail. The counsel argued that the accused/ applicant is innocent and is falsely implicated in this case. The counsel submitted that the suspect is ready to face trail, therefore, the court may grant him bail.
After the arguments, the court granted him bail against a surety of Rs 200, 000 and directed him to join investigation and appear before the court on the next date of hearing. It needs to be mentioned here that Taimur Asif Khan was absconding in this case.
Earlier, the investigation officer, Assistant Commissioner Inland Revenue Imran Falak Sher produced Faraz s/o Fazal-e-Rabi Salehjee, proprietor of Chester Bernard and Co, before the court in the same case. He informed the court that the accused is registered person and is deliberately filing nil monthly sales tax returns to evade sales tax liability. He said that offence directly comes under the ambit of tax fraud as per section 2 (37) of the sales tax act, 1990. In this way, both accused along with others persons have caused loss to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs 6.11 million.
He further had argued that after the formalities a case was registered against the accused and others under section 2 (37) of the sales tax act, 1990 read with SRO 1125 (1)/2011 dated 31/12/2011 and the provisions of section 2(9) 2 (37), 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 22, 23, 26, 38, 73 of the sales tax act, 1990 and others.
The investigation officer said that the Customs Department needs to further probe the matter and arrest the other suspects who are allegedly involved in the tax fraud. He submitted that investigation is under progress and he would update the court on the next date of hearing. He requested the court to grant physical remand of the accused.
After the arguments, the court granted his request and sent the accused on physical remand. The court also directed the investigation officer to produce them on the next date of hearing along with progress report.
