KARACHI: The Customs Court sent suspects namely Najeed Ullah, Muhammad Afzal, Syed Abdul Razzak to Customs Preventive on physical remand, who were arrested in a case of attempting to smuggle non-duty paid betel nuts, gutka and mobil oil.
On February 7, 2019; investigation officer produced the above-mentioned suspects before the court and informed that on actionable information, customs officials intercepted a trailer bearing registration no TLG-981 and recovered 17,400 kilograms betel nuts worth Rs13,050,000, 500 pouches of foreign origin Zoya gutka worth Rs2,00,000 and 6,660 liters foreign origin mobil oil worth Rs1,110,000.
He further informed the court that suspects were asked to produce lawful documents, however, they failed to produce any lawful documents, therefore, they were arrested and goods were seized by customs officials. He further argued that prosecution needs further investigations from them for arrest of other culprits involved in this case, therefore, court may send them back to customs lock-up.
After the hearing, court sent them back to customs department on physical remand and directed investigation officer to produce them on next date of hearing along with progress report.
According to the prosecution, case was registered for violation of Section 2 (s) 156 (2) and 178 of Customs Act, 1969 punishable under Clauses 89 and 85 of Section 156 (1) read with Section 3 of Import & Export Control Act, 1950.