KARACHI: Customs Court Judge Syed Faiz Rasool Rashdi granted bail to accused Ishtiaq Ahmed son of Sobbay Khan who is involved in a case of tempering chassis number of alleged smuggled Toyota Land Cruiser jeep.
During the hearing, counsel for the applicant / accused has applied for bail and submitted that the applicant is innocent and has falsely been implicated in this case. Therefore, he should be granted a bail. However, the counsel for the department argued that the prosecution has provided sufficient evidences against the accused; therefore his bail application should be rejected.
After the hearing of arguments from both sides, the court granted bail to the accused against the surety bonds of Rs 500,000.
According to the prosecution, in pursuance of an information on 26/10/2013 a customs party intercepted a Toyota Land Curiser jeep near Bhains Colony More, National Highway, Karachi which was being driven by Hamid Mahmood. The driver failed to produce any legal documents relating to import of the vehicle, the driver of the vehicle produced only GD bearing dated 19/09/2007 and one registration coupon and also disclosed that he is an employee of M/s J.J Enterprises, Customs Clearing Agent and vehicle is registered in the name of Ishtiaq Ahmed.
Investigation officer informed the court that after forensic test of the vehicle it revealed that as per report ” the piece of chassis frame bearing serial number JTEB729J800055300 is welded and replaced at the site of original chassis number “which show that chassis number of said vehicle has been tempered.
After the formalities case has been registered under section 156 (1) (89) of the Customs Act, 1969, registered by Customs Collectorate of Preventive Anti-Smuggling Organization, Karachi.