KARACHI: Police on Friday claimed to have ‘solved’ a case of a recent snatching of 190 tolas of gold (worth over Rs20 million) in Defence Housing Authority and claimed that this was a plan carefully orchestrated by a son to seize the gold of his parents kept in a bank locker.

South SSP (Investigation) Imran Mirza said that a citizen, Asghar, had lodged an FIR on March 20 claiming that robbers had snatched 190 tolas of gold from him on Khayaban-i-Hafiz, DHA, Phase-VI. According to contents of the FIR, the family was making arrangements for a marriage and he had drawn gold ornaments from the bank locker for this purpose.

When he reached home on Khayaban-i-Hafiz in a car, two suspects riding a motorbike snatched gold and cash from him.

The police said closed-circuit television camera footage provided by the complainant showed the incident of a robbery.

However, when the police after registering an FIR (21/2021) started investigation, doubts cropped up about the veracity of the robbery claim, said SSP Mirza.

Geofencing and technical data of mobile phones at the time of the incident raised more doubts.

The officer said that the parents had given the gold ornaments to their son Asghar to keep the gold in a bank locker two years ago.

“However, Asghar along with his wife had sold the 190 tolas of gold within two years.”

When his family asked him to bring back the gold from the locker on the occasion of a marriage of their brother, the complainant hatched a plan of a ‘fake robbery’ because he had already sold the jewellery, said the officer.

For this purpose, he allegedly hired services of his wife’s cousin, Faiq Ali, who is a “coordinator of a private university” in Karachi.

Faiq along with another person staged a “drama of snatching gold ornaments” and fled from the crime scene.

The officer said the investigators became suspicious about the robbery when they saw the footage as the suspects had snatched a “shopping bag” from the couple without showing any weapon to them.

Besides, geofencing of the area revealed presence of the suspects and the complainant in the same locality.

Moreover, their mobile phones’ records also revealed that the suspects and the complainant remained in touch with each other during the robbery 38 times.

“During interrogation, the suspects revealed all details and the police have arrested them,” said Mr Mirza.

Building collapse

A building collapsed during an anti-encroachment drive in Orangi Town on Friday, said police and rescue services.

They added that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation staff were busy in demolishing illegally built structures on Orangi Nullah when a building collapsed in Sector 9-E.

The house occupants had already left the location.

As a result, the debris of the building fell on four labourers of the KMC.

Three of them were rescued immediately and did not suffer any serious injuries.

However, the fourth one was rescued with help of machinery.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2021