ISLAMABAD, April 21: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal of an accused involved in tax evasion through fake liquor import permits and four appeals filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the acquittal of four co-accused in the case.

A three-member Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, upheld the Sindh High Court verdict.

The NAB had filed appeals against the acquittal of the four co-accused — Ismail Rahu, former Sindh minister; Kaka Kishan Chand, the proprietor, Kohistan Wine Merchant, Karachi; Raj Kumar, the manager of the company and Asher Jan, the manager, Murree Brewery, Rawalpindi.

An accountability court on June 2002 had sentenced the principal accused, Agha Wazir Abbas, an assitant officer, Excise and Taxation Department, Sindh, to seven-year imprisonment with Rs20 million fine for causing Rs66 million loss to the public exchequer by preparing 33 fake import permits from Murree Brewery, Rawalpindi.

The court had also sentenced the four co-accused but the Sindh High Court acquitted them on July 29, 2003.

The AC had declared Iqbal Solangi, Director-General Excise and Taxation Department, Sindh; Majid Pathan, a director of the department; Niaz Baloch, an officer of the department; Mehrumal Jagwani, former member of Sindh Assembly and proprietor of the United Wine Merchant; and Bhagwandas, an accountant of the company, proclaimed offenders.

Authored by Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, the 12-page judgment said: “In our opinion the SHC order was based on proper appraisal of evidence and the reasons advanced for the acquittal of the respondents were cogent and convincing”.

It is a settled principle of law that findings of acquittal could only be upset if the same are found perverse, arbitrary, foolish or based on misreading or non-appraisal of evidence, the judgment maintained. The counsel for the state has failed to show that the SHC judgment of acquittal suffers from any legal infirmities, the judgment said.

“We are of the considered opinion that the high court judgment was based on valid and sound reasons and was entirely in consonance with law laid down by this court. Neither, there is misreading, nor non-reading of material”, the judgment added.

Advocate Ahmed Raza Kasuri represented NAB, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan appeared on behalf of the main accused while Abdul Hafeez Pirzada and Syed Kamal Azfar appeared as counsels for the four co-accused.