KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday remanded an officer of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and six other suspects in police custody for four days in a kidnapping for ransom case.

The investigation officer produced Haris, alias Ashar; Mohammed Rizwan Shah; Tariq Hasan Shah, alias Amir; Muzamil Raza; Umer Jilani; Umer Irshad and Noman Riffat before the administrative judge of the ATC in Clifton.

The IO informed the court that he needed their custody for 14 days to check their criminal records and arrest the remaining suspects.

Upon the IO’s request, the court remanded them in police custody for four days and directed the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing.

IO says suspects abducted crypto trader and released him after taking $340,000 ransom

The suspects were booked for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a cryptocurrency trader and releasing him after taking a ransom of “$340,000”.

According to the contents of the FIR registered at the Manghopir police station on Dec 27, the complainant, Mohammed Arsalan, said that he lived in Saima Arabian Villas in Manghopir and was doing a crypto currency business.

Around 15-20 days ago, one person identified as Hamid approached him for purchasing dollars but he told him that he did not do sale/purchase of the greenback. The said person continuously remained in touch with him for 10-15 days but he was avoiding him.

Subsequently, he (Hamid) approached his friend Zohaib and later on at night on Dec 24, three people came to his office in Saima Arabian Villas.

Two of them identified themselves as Muzamil and Hammad.

The complainant said he told them he would ask his friend to arrange dollars as he did not have the currency.

They made a video of a dollar whose picture was in his cell phone and sent it to someone.

As per the FIR, the suspects asked for 30,000 dollars and when he demanded payment for such a quantity of foreign currency, the said suspects did not give him any positive response and stayed there for 45 minutes.

They told him that a person namely Ashar would come and make the payment to him. In the meantime, they all went to a restaurant in the area where at around 1am on Dec 25, three people in a Suzuki Alto vehicle also arrived, who identified themselves as Ashar, Muzamil and Zaman.

The complainant said when he asked Ashar for the payment, he also avoided and went for a while where he made a phone call to someone.

Subsequently, at 1:40am one police mobile, without number plate, arrived in which there were five people in plain clothes. The men covered his mouth with a cloth, took him and brought him near the FIA Saddar office.

“The policemen in plain clothes” forcibly opened his Binance account and transferred 340,000 dollars to different accounts. They also took away cash from his pocket.”

They reset his cell phone, handed it back to him and dropped him near the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah at 4am. He hired a rickshaw and reached his home.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2025