KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday approached a sessions court, seeking physical custody of Armaghan Qureshi, prime suspect in Mustafa murder case, in the credit card data theft case, after a judicial magistrate declined to hand him over.

A day earlier, investigating officer (IO) Ameer Ali Khoso had filed an application before the judicial magistrate (South) and sought physical custody of Armaghan for 14 days for interrogation in credit card data theft case.

However, after examining the application and hearing the IO, the court had dismissed his plea.

In its order, the court had observed that in the absence of the suspect, neither physical nor judicial remand could be granted. The magistrate noted that the suspect had been implicated in the case on April 16. However, despite being in FIA custody in a separate money laundering case at that time, the agency failed to produce him before the court to seek his physical remand.

Agency approaches sessions court after judicial magistrate declines plea

The order further stated that although the IO had interrogated the suspect in jail on April 24, he appeared before the court only on Tuesday, which indicated “malice on his part”.

On Wednesday, IO Khoso filed a revised application before District and Sessions Judge (South) Suresh Kumar, requesting that the impugned order of the judicial magistrate be set aside and physical custody of the suspect be granted. After allowing the application, the matter is fixed for hearing on Friday.

In the application, the IO stated that the impugned order was passed by the magistrate “without applying the judicious mind and the provisions of law.”

He submitted that the magistrate failed to consider that sufficient material allegedly available on record which “prima facie” connects the suspect with the commission of offence which is “heinous in nature”.

He prayed before the court to set aside the impugned order and grant physical custody of the suspect for 14 days for “fair and impartial investigation” in the interest of justice.

The FIA claimed that Armaghan was allegedly operating an “illegal call centre” in the Defence Housing Authority. The agency further alleged that the call centre was used for harassing people, engaging in fraudulent practices, identity impersonation, cheating, spoofing, phishing, and extortion.

It added that the employees of the said call centre were trained to impersonate officials from international agencies to extract sensitive information such as names, debit or credit details and social security numbers.

The FIA claimed that the illegal transaction was carried out on the instruction of Armaghan alias Alex Boss.

Regarding the modus operandi, the agency stated that the suspect obtained financial information and processed it through the website www.oet.com to verify its authenticity. These cards were typically charged without any service being rendered, the FIA added.

It further stated that the agency had received 64 laptops from Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) which were sent for forensic examination.

The agency claimed that the digital forensics analysis report confirmed that incriminating evidences were available on these digital devices like VoIP software, VPN software, access to United States Patent and Trade Mark (USPTO) portals and extraction of registered trademark serials.

The forensic report also contained scripts title “rebuttals” and files named “logs12”, LOGS4” containing victims’ data and the instructions for calling agents (employee of Armughan) impersonating as officials from internationally organised bodies such as the USPTO to unlawfully extract the sensitive personal and financial information of the victims and obtain the victims’ confidential banking and credit cards information.

These details were then passed on to the suspect, after which illicit payments were made from the victims’ online accounts to accounts provided by Armaghan. These included cryptocurrency wallets on platforms such as Paxful and NoPOnes (online P2P trading platforms). The funds were subsequently transferred to local bank accounts belonging to his servants, namely Abdul Rahim, Rahim Baksh, and others believed to be linked to the suspect, the FIA claimed.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025