KARACHI: An accountability court on Thursday remanded in custody of the National Accountability Bureau a suspect detained over his alleged involvement in a scam pertaining to defrauding the public of Rs18 million through impersonation.

The NAB officials arrested Saqib Ashraf red-handed while recovering money in Karachi on Sept 8.

On Thursday, investigating officer Irfan Ali produced him before the administrative judge of the accountability courts Abdul Ghani Soomro to seek his physical remand for interrogation and investigation.

The IO said that the suspect was arrested in pursuance of arrest warrant issued by the DG NAB, Karachi.

He said that the main accused Khalid Hussain Solangi had allegedly been presenting himself as director general, NAB, Karachi and by threatening different persons/officers he had collected/extorted huge amounts from them.

In this connection, the IO added, Solangi had sent Saqib Ashraf to collect money from one person/officer on Sept 8 when he was arrested red-handed.

He said that while a reference had already been filed against Khalid Solangi and his son, since the present suspect was arrested now, he needed to be interrogated with regard to other persons who were also involved in the scam.

Therefore, the IO requested for 14-day physical remand of the suspect in NAB custody.

However, the judge remanded the suspect in the custody of NAB for 10 days with direction to the IO to conclude the investigation and submit a report on the next date.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2021