Merchant pleads not guilty to customs crimes

Businessman Jitendra Chawla, better known as Jack Charles, who owns Xtra House Supermarket on Cemetery Road is out on two thousand, five hundred dollars bail plus one surety. Chawla appeared in Court number two this morning before Magistrate Dorothy Flowers where he pled not guilty to customs duties evasion, falsifying customs declarations, importing a restricted item without a permit, and obstructing a customs examiner. Chawla’s trial date is set for September fifth. The obstruction charge arose out of an incident on April tenth, 2002 when it’s alleged that Chawla gave false information to a customs examiner about some computers. The other three charges relate to the importation of some one hundred and fifty sacks of Indian rice imported into Belize on July twenty-sixth of last year. Customs officials say that the businessman only paid duty for sixteen sacks. According to Chawla, he has receipts for all his rice purchases and feels that officials are only trying to harass him as he’s awaiting judgement in a case he brought against the Customs Department in the Supreme Court.