KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has secured another 3-day remand of Customs officials Tariq Mehmood and Yawar Abbas from Sindh High Court (SHC) till Sunday.
FIA is progressing in the case. A raid was conducted at the residence of one Senior Preventive Officer Tayyab, and a large quantity of cash was recovered along with empty jewelry boxes. FIA reached the jeweler and recovered receipts of 62 tola of gold ornaments purchased by SPO Tayyab from M/s Jewel Palace.
Moreover, FIA has recovered service filed of Superintendents, SPOs, IPS and POs whom have been in their current offices for a significantly long time. Sources said the FIA was tracing the officials whom were in direct contact with the Collector bypassing Additional Collectors and Deputy Collectors. This would lead to the official directly in contact with the smugglers.
It may be mentioned here, Collector Enforcement Aamir Thahim soon after assuming his office removed Tayyab, Shahbaz and Smaroz from Anti-Smuggling Organization due to their questionable reputation.
Sources said FIA was trying to trace SPO Tayyab and Preventive Officer Shahbaz as well as sepoy Shamroz to proceed in its investigations.
The FIA registered a case against two Customs officials including Tariq Mehmood and Yawar Abbas under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. According to the FIR, the accused officers facilitated the smuggling of goods worth billions of rupees from Baluchistan to Karachi and other parts of the country and received millions of rupees as bribes from the smugglers.
The FIR further stated that the FIA recovered a diary from the office of SPS Tariq Mehmood, which contained details of the payments made to various officers by the smugglers. The diary also revealed that the accused officers had formed a cartel and divided the areas of operation among themselves.