TWO men are on trial for exporting recyclable aluminium material to India by sea by claiming that the shipping container used was carrying a load of waste paper.
A supervisor at a well-known recycling company and an employee at a scrap metal seller allegedly collaborated to create a fake invoice for the paper shipment, to use it as a cover to send the much-in-demand metal product.
The Indian and Pakistani defendants were accused of obtaining an export licence through deception, in order to send the disguised aluminium waste shipment.
They are facing charges at the High Criminal Court of committing forgery, and using the forged documents with intent of passing them off as legitimate.
The 47-year-old Indian supervisor was charged with entering false information into the online system of a governmental body, the Supreme Council for the Environment (SCE), in order to obtain the licence.
He reportedly filled an application form for an export and import waste licence, and submitted it to the SCE’s Environmental Licensing Portal along with the allegedly-forged receipt.
The SCE approved the request, granting the well-known recycling company permission to send 10 paper waste containers from Khalifa Bin Salman Port to India.
A 32-year-old Pakistani has been charged with collaborating and aiding his co-defendant to obtain the paper waste export permit on false grounds.
According to court documents, the younger man had reached out to the older suspect, asking him for a favour on behalf of the scrap metal company he worked for.
The Pakistani reportedly claimed that the company’s commercial registration had been suspended and was unable to ship anything abroad, stating that he needed the Indian’s help to deliver scrap aluminium which the scrap company sold to an Indian firm.
Because the well-known recycling company only deals with plastic and paper, and does not handle aluminium or any other metals as part of its operations, the defendants resorted to lying on the SCE application form to be granted an export permit.
The alleged deception was spotted when Customs Affairs officers at the seaport scanned a sample of containers with an X-ray cargo inspection machine.
“My job is to search incoming and departing containers,” a customs officer earlier told the Public Prosecution. “We detected metal in shipments although the manifest said ‘paper’ on it.”
Of the 10 shipping containers, four made it out of Bahrain, four were currently held at the port, and two remained with the scrap company.
The Indian defendant reportedly admitted to the charges during questioning and an internal company investigation accused him of being responsible for forging a manager’s signature on the application form.
The trial continues.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))