LAHORE, Oct 17: The Punjab NAB on Thursday arrested Seth Nisar and his co-accused Shaukat Ali Bhatti, former collector of customs, in another corruption reference.

Both the accused, already in the Peshawar NAB custody, were remanded in the Punjab NAB custody till Oct 30.

The new reference is about evasion of customs duty of Rs1.5 billion on steel raw material.

Seth Nisar’s counsel submitted before the court that his client had been in the NAB custody on the same charges. He contended that under the law no accused could be arrested nor remanded twice on the same charges. He requested the court to disallow the NAB’s application for seeking his physical custody.

The NAB counsel submitted that the charges under which Seth Nisar was being arrested were different from those levelled in the past.

He contended that in this reference, new co-accused have been named while probe against others was underway. Therefore, this reference should be treated as fresh and separate to the previous ones.

The court, after hearing arguments from both the sides, rejected the defence version and directed the NAB authorities to complete the investigation by the next date of hearing.

Earlier, while producing both the accused for obtaining their physical custody, the NAB told the court that they had been involved in the evasion of customs duty on steel raw material.

It alleged that Seth Nisar launched Irfan Seamless Pipe Company in 1992 for the manufacture of steel pipes. Later, he imported a special kind of steel after furnishing a fake report to the customs authorities. It has been alleged that the accused evaded customs duty with the connivance of Shaukat Ali Bhatti and other customs officials.

The NAB alleged that Shaukat Ali during his posting as Lahore customs collector in 1992, was asked by the department to submit a report regarding the permission sought by Seth Nisar to import steel raw material for his company.

He prepared a fake report after which the import was allowed on which duty of Rs850 million was further evaded by the importer with the connivance of the accused.

Shaukat Ali is already facing charges of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.