Customs court: Plea for registration of fresh case against Ayyan

Customs authorities once again fail to submit complete challan

RAWALPINDI:

Customs intelligence’s joint investigation team filed a petition against supermodel Ayyan Ali, seeking registration of a fresh case in a customs court in Rawalpindi, Express News reported on Friday.

On March 14, Ayyan was arrested by customs officials from Islamabad airport after over $500,000 in undeclared cash was found in her baggage. The supermodel has been sent on for judicial remand to Adiala jail.  Ayyan recently moved to Europe where she is hoping to take up a new career in music. Ayyan was set to board an Emirates airline to Dubai and according to Airport Security Force did not declare that she was carrying a large sum of money.

The petitioner said the custom authorities should be allowed to arrest the supermodel and carry out an investigation.

Meanwhile, the customs investigation team once again failed to submit a complete challan against the supermodel in a banking court in Rawalpindi.

Ayyan’s counsel, Sardar Ishaq, argued that an investigation team is bound to produce complete challan within 15 days of commencement.

Judge Sabir Sultan adjourned the hearing of the ongoing case till May 18 and ordered the team to provide the relevant documents in the next hearing.

On April 25, the investigators probing money laundering charges against Ayyan had submitted an interim charge-sheet in court and included two new suspects for interrogation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2015.