KARACHI: A substantial quantity of confiscated goods has been stolen from the office of the Directorate of Intelligence and Investigation (DI&I), Karachi.

According to the FIR, the confiscated goods, which were taken into custody by the DI&I, Karachi, in separate incidents, have been stolen from the office.

The goods were air conditioners, imported solar plates, photocopier, fuel nozzles, steel sheets, lockers, etc.

Sources said that Section 169 (1), (2) and (3) of Customs Act, 1969 read with para 33 & 34 of CGO 12/2002 has envisaged the legal procedure for storage of seized and confiscated goods in the state warehouse and termed the placement of goods within office premises instead of state warehouse as an illegal act.

Furthermore, the security in charge through the letter requested the authority concerned to issue necessary directives to the Directorate officers to remove all confiscated goods from the office premises and shift them to the state warehouse immediately along with the goods parked outside the office such as oil tankers, non-custom paid vehicles, etc.

However, due to the absence of a CCTV system, the stealing of confiscated goods from the Directorate has now become every day incident.

This was the second FIR lodged by the Directorate in the last 15 days.

Earlier, the Directorate has lodged an FIR, claiming that a substantial quantity of liquor, imported and cleared under the guise of diplomatic cargo, has been stolen from the office.

Meanwhile, sources said that the Directorate was supposed to transfer the confiscated goods into the state warehouse within the prescribed period to issue show-cause notice for further legal proceedings.

However, in these cases, the seized goods were not shifted to the state warehouse and remained in the Directorate for months for no reason.

When approached, Director, DI&I, Karachi, was also not available for comments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021