GUJRAT: At least five women, who were unwitting victims of a spinal tap scam in Hafizabad, underwent an MRI scan at the Lahore General Hospital (LGH) on Tuesday after complaining of feeling weakness in the lower half of their bodies.

Senior officials of the district administration and police told Dawn that seven more women had come forward to record their statements against a gang of five people who had scammed dozens of women in Gujranwala and Hafizabad by collecting their spinal fluid with promises of financial reward under the prime minister’s dowry fund scheme.

The police have also decided to conduct a polygraph test (commonly known as a lie detection test) of the two main suspects Nadeem and Sajid Masih, as well as locating technical data on their cell phones. They said Nadeem had made several different statements about why they had been extracting the spinal fluid, whereas Sajid has not yet disclosed the nature of his involvement in the case.

The seven women who came forward on Tuesday were taken to the Hafizabad DHQ Hospital for medical examination, as police officials shared that the number of women they might have scammed could rise to 200.

Number of women scammed by the gang can reach 200

Hafizabad Deputy Commissioner Saleha Saeed told Dawn that five women had undergone MRI scans at the LGH after complaining about weakness in the lower half of their bodies, however, the rest of the women who had recorded their statements had not reported such an effect.

She said they had not yet received the MRI report but a formal inquiry had been launched into the matter and a report in this regard would be completed in three days.

The government has constituted an inquiry team, headed by the Hafizabad DC, and comprising Assistant Commissioner Imtiaz Shahid Gondal, DHQ Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Rehan Azhar, the Hafizabad Sadar DSP and a representative of the provincial health department, to probe the matter.

Hafiz Ahmed Jamal, a spokesperson for the Hafizabad Police, told this correspondent that seven more women, in addition to the 16 who had earlier recorded their statements, had approached the police on Tuesday. They were later examined at the DHQ Hospital.

He added that the police and local authorities have asked people to come forward if they, too, were approached and scammed by the gang. However, the exact number of affected people has not been ascertained so far.

On Monday, Hafizabad police had arrested five people accused of tapping ‘spinal fluid’ from at least 15 women in the various parts of Hafizabad and Gujranwala after tricking them into believing that it was a requirement for participation in a government welfare project.

The suspects — identified as Nadeem, Muhammad Aslam, his wife Amna Bibi, and Irfan — would allegedly sell the fluid they had tapped to Sajid Masih, who worked as a sweeper at the DHQ Hospital’s kidney ward.

Amna Bibi was sent to the district jail on judicial remand, and Nadeem, his cousin Irfan, and Amna’s husband Aslam were sent on two days’ physical remand. They will be presented in the court of the area magistrate today (Wednesday).

The police said that they could not confirm whether the suspects had used a single syringe or several instruments to extract fluid from the spinal cords of victims.

However, two syringes had been recovered from the suspects – one of which was full of fluid extracted from some of the victims. The two syringes had been sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Laboratory for the further investigation.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2018