Mutual agreement frees shop owner from charge

By Ailen Kwaragu
A FOREIGN shop owner, who was charged with receiving stolen goods belonging to Desh Besh Holdings Ltd, had his case struck out by the Waigani committal court yesterday by Magistrate Tracy Ganaii yesterday.
It was alleged that on Dec 30 Ahmed Nozir, 39, of Comilla, Bangladesh and owner of Shorna Holdings Ltd, obtained some large quantity of goods worth more than K100,000 from Desh Besh Ltd, knowing them to have been stolen.
A complaint was lodged by Desh Besh at the Gordon Police Station on Feb 5 and a search warrant was issued.
However, mutual agreement by the two owners not to pursue the case and investigations led to the case being struck out.
Police during their search became suspicious by the abnormal manner in which the goods were kept and asked for the receipts but the defendant immediately refused.
The goods were confiscated and locked at the Gordon Police Station to further police investigations.
The goods were 200 cartons of Ox & Palm corned beef blue, 200 cartons of Ox & Palm red and 200 cartons of canned Coca Cola.
After examining the receipts and pro-forma invoices from the complainant (company), it was concluded that the goods were the same stolen from Desh Besh Enterprises in Gordon.
However, both parties mutually agreed to stop the investigation from progressing and resolved the problem. The complainant then withdrew his complaint through police conversation with their respective lawyers.
The confiscated goods as agreed on by both parties were returned.