Arrested Customs officer admits to give ‘gold as bribe to seniors’

KARACHI: A Customs officer – who was arrested along with others on corruption charges, has allegedly admitted to give 160 tola of gold to please his seniors, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The Customs officers who had been arrested in a mega corruption case a few days ago made revelations before the investigators.

The investigators claimed that an arrested Customs officer used to buy gold from the bribe money to please his seniors. They added that more than 160 tola of gold was given to the senior Customs officers as bribes.

Following the revelations, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided a jewellery shop in Karachi’s Clifton area and seized the sale receipts. The investigators said that the gold was purchased on benami receipts.

The FIA also conducted a raid at the residence of another Customs officer who purchased gold but he managed to flee. The investigators found out the accused officers used to purchase gold via smuggling income for their seniors.

The investigators have also started preparing a list of the vehicles used for smuggling goods. The Federal Investigation Agency also recovered the registers of accounts which will be helpful to expand the investigation.

FIA’s stop list

On Sunday, it was learnt that the ‘wanted’ Customs officers on charges of ‘speed money’ were placed on the stop list of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to stop them from fleeing abroad.

Major progress was made on actions against the ‘corrupt’ Customs officers wanted to the FIA. The authorities placed the accused officers on FIA’s stop list for stopping them to leave the country after the registration of the speed money case.

The accused officers include Customs Collectors Saqif Saeed, Usman Bajwa and Amir Them who have been placed on the stop list. The other officers included Customs Officer Yawar Abbas and Tariq Mehmood who had already been arrested on the corruption charges.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) also placed chalia smuggler Imran Noorani’s name on the stop list.

Arrests

On Friday, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have rounded up two Pakistan Customs officers in the mega corruption scandal.

Tariq Mahmood and Yawar Abbass, who were ‘missing’ from last week, rounded up while going to Islamabad.

According to the FIA officials, the arrested Pakistan Customs officers used to take money from the smugglers for clearance of their goods from checkposts.

According to FIA officials, Rs5.4 million, $2,500, and 6,100 Darhams were also recovered from their possession.

They were receiving Rs40 to 60 million monthly from the customs checkposts, the FIA officials said and added that a mega corruption scandal has been registered against the customs officers at the FIA anti-corruption circle.