The Investigating Officer (IO) filed a ‘Second Provisional Charge Sheet’ in a case involving the smuggling of a Bentley Mulsanne which was said to have been stolen from the UK and recovered from a house in the Karachi Defense area.
IO Muddasir Ali submitted the charge sheet to Special Customs and Tax Judge Muhammad Saad Qureshi, listing two suspects, Naveed Bilwani and Kamran Ansari, in judicial custody, while six others: Navaid Yamin, Muhammad Sohail, Syed Khurram Hussain Naqvi, Jameel Shafi, Muhammad Ismail Chandio and Zeeshan Saleem Shaikh are out on bail.
Ansari, director of M/s Focus Shipping Agencies, has recently been arrested. Customs officials recovered the vehicle from a Defense Housing Authority home, said to be owned by Shafi, last month.
To get a clear picture of how the stolen vehicle was brought here, the IO said he wrote letters to various transportation agencies and carriers and collected relevant documents.
During his examination, he said Ansari’s company was known to be the original importer of the vehicle, but he, in collusion with suspect Yamin, fraudulently prepared false and forged documents, including bills of lading (B/Ls) to declare to the Bulgarian embassy as its importer. instead of misusing diplomatic impunity.
He pointed out that so far no evidence has been recorded to show that the embassy made payments to the importer or the clearing agent for hiring their services. “Until now no evidence has been recovered about the embassy payment that could corroborate that the vehicle belongs to the Bulgarian Embassy,” the charge sheet says.
It added that the evidence collected so far showed that Yamin abused the exemptions and diplomatic rights in collusion with the shipping company and the clearing agent. “The clearing agent without any payment from the embassy through an official channel cleared the vehicle in collusion with the defendant Navaid Yamin. The clearing agent received two B/Ls from M/s Focus Shipping Agency, one describing it as a gasoline car and the other as a diesel car,” the IO said.
During questioning, he said that Ansari confessed that Yamin was in contact with him and his former employee Fahad Ahmed and that, following Yamin’s instructions, the forged bills of lading were issued in the name of the embassy, on the basis of which obtained an exemption certificate. of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The IO said that during the scrutiny of the data collected from the shipping company’s office, as many as 84 entries of vehicles shipped and authorized in the name of different embassies emerged. Furthermore, he said that the WhatsApp communication between Yamin and Fahad, who has been named a witness for the prosecution in the case, showed that it was not just a single vehicle smuggled through the misuse of diplomatic exemptions, but that there were many such vehicles. imported by Yamin. .
To broaden the scope of the ongoing investigation, the IO said that letters had been sent to banks to acquire the transaction details of the accused persons and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the motor vehicle registration authority to obtain transaction details. authorized vehicles with diplomatic impunity. and issued license plates.
The case is set for a hearing on October 12 when the IO is due to file a final charge sheet in the case.