KARACHI: The Special Court of Customs Taxation and Anti-Smuggling on Tuesday rejected the bail application of a suspect who is behind bars for allegedly smuggling a huge quantity of alcohol into the country.
Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi dismissed the bail application of Shahid Khatri, who moved the court through his counsel seeking his release on bail.
According to the prosecution, Pakistan Customs’ Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation had seized a huge quantity of whisky, alcohol beverages of assorted brands which were concealed inside 18 rolls of test liner recycle liner paper. The goods seized included 3,340 bottles of Black Label, 1,030 bottles of Red Label, 993 bottles of White & Mac, 298 bottles of Cattos, 181 bottles of Vodka, 260 bottles of Cordier, 212 bottles of Grant, 1 bottle of Medoc, four bottles of Listel, 141 bottles of Chivas Regal, 293 cases of 6,816 cans of Beer Carlsberg.
Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Abdul Dawood, the proprietors of M/s A-Z Corporation, his accomplices Shahid Khatri, Muhammad Zubair, Jawad Ghaffar, Rashid Iqbal, and Saleem aka Mamo. Shahid Khatri has been behind bars for over 14 months.\
During previous hearing, accused Jawad had confessed to his involvement in the crime. Subsequently, the Court imposed a penalty of Rs 500,000 on him and ordered his release since he had served over five months in prison. However, the rest of the accused are still on the loose.
