KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday extended for one more time the physical remand of two Customs officials in the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in connection with a smuggling probe.

The FIA also informed the magistrate that some gold traders had been associated and questioned in the ongoing smuggling probe.

Earlier this month, the FIA had arrested Tariq Mehmood and Yawar Abbas, both serving as superintendents in the Customs’ Anti-Smuggling Organisation (ASO), at Karachi airport. The agency alleged that the two officials helped smugglers to transport smuggled goods via land routes of Balochistan and Karachi.

On Friday, the investigating officer (IO) produced the duo before the judicial magistrate (South) and sought another extension in their physical remand.

The IO also filed a progress report, stating that while widening the scope of the investigation some gold traders had also been included and interrogated.

The court was informed that the held suspects and other Customs officers, who were allegedly involved in taking bribes, bought a huge quantity of gold with the graft money and later they distributed the gold among themselves.

The IO asked the court to extend the physical remand of the held suspects.

On the other hand, defence counsel Shaukat Hayat opposed the plea for extension in the physical remand.

However, the magistrate extended the physical remand of the suspects in the FIA’s custody by three more days and directed the IO to produce them on the next date and also submit a progress report.

According to the remand papers, a raid was conducted at the office of ASO Tariq Mehmood at Ghas Bunder from where the record related to bribes, called ‘speed money’, was seized. The record pertained to the modus operandi adopted by the suspects for receiving bribes and handling of other official routine affairs, he added.

Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2023