Speed money case: Arrest warrants issued for 36 proclaimed offenders

KARACHI: The Special Court Central has issued arrest warrants for 36 proclaimed offenders in the Rs6 billion speed money case against Customs officers, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The special court ordered to produce all accused till November 28.

According to Customs, the accused officers were involved in speed money through the smuggling of chalia, Iranian diesel and other commodities. Additionally, the accused Customs officers were also involved in receiving bribes from the smugglers.

It emerged that the accused created a Field Officers WhatsApp group to share numbers of those vehicles transporting smuggling goods. The officers gave clearance to the said vehicles without any inspection.

“The accused had received Rs60 million from a chalia smugglers’ gang besides receiving bribes ranging from Rs40 to Rs50 million on a monthly basis from Mochko, Ghaghar Phatak and Sohrab Goth check posts.”

“The accused officers had purchased 610-tola gold by using Rs135 million speed money which was also given to the senior officers. Moreover, they also purchased properties in Karachi and Lahore using the ill-gotten money.”

FIA revelations

In August, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) made revelations in the smuggling case as Customs officers were found involved in purchasing gold bricks from ‘speed money’ or bribery.

The FIA probe found a front man of Customs officer Usman Bajwa involved in converting ill-gotten money into gold. The intelligence agency made startling revelations in a smuggling case involving Customs officers.

The probe documents showed that the accused Customs officers used to purchase gold bricks from the bribery and also transferred the ill-gotten money to Punjab.

It further stated that Usman Bajwa’s sub-ordinate officer Tayyab Khan purchased gold assets worth Rs155 million to whiten the black money.

The documents revealed that Amir Thahem received Rs300 million bribe from the dealers of banned chalia brands and later he used the money for purchasing gold. The bribes were allegedly collected by Shehbaz and Tayyab for Amir and also transported the gold assets.

During the deputation of Customs officer Saqib Saeed, Superintendent Jamal Zia and IO Hassan Sardar were running a smuggling network. Saqib Saeed had established an organised network with the collusion of Imran Noorani for chalia smuggling.

An accused man namely Imran Noorani and his team members were tasked to transport bribes worth millions of rupees twice a month to Saqib Saeed.

The documents showed that the Customs intelligence officers including Saqib Saeed, Usman Bajwa and Amir Thahem established an organised smuggling network. Yawar Abbas, Jamal Zia, Tayyab, Tariq Bhutto, Anwaar Farooqui, Hassan Sardar, Hafiz Muhammad Younus and Zaheer Cheema were also part of the network.

According to the probe documents, the officers were also receiving bribes for the Iranian diesel smuggling. They used to charge Rs3 per litre for the smuggling of Iranian diesel. Ijaz Butt and Honak Baloch were also found involved in the diesel smuggling network.

Sources told ARY News that Ijaz Butt and Honak Baloch were also influential officers who have been questioned by the FIA. The officers were collecting bribes worth millions of rupees via chalia smuggling on a monthly basis, the documents revealed.