KARACHI: A sessions court on Friday granted physical remand of Armaghan Qureshi, the prime suspect in the Mustafa Amir murder case, to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against a revision application filed in a credit card data theft case.

Recently, a judicial magistrate had declined to remand Armaghan in the agency’s custod on the ground that neither physical nor judicial remand could be granted in the absence of any suspect.

Later, the FIA filed a revision 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 for 14 days.

After hearing investigating officer (IO) Ameer Ali Khoso and suspect Armaghan — who appeared through video link from prison — on Friday, the court remanded him for five days and directed the IO to produce him before the judicial magistrate concerned on May 6 for further remand or otherwise.

Sessions court sets aside magistrate’s order rejecting remand request

The court also instructed the FIA to make arrangements for shifting the suspect from prison to an FIA cell under full security for investigation in this case.

At the outset of the hearing, the FIA informed the court in response to an inquiry that the suspect was currently in judicial custody at the central prison in another case.

The court briefly adjourned the proceedings, which later resumed after the suspect was produced through a video link from the prison.

In its order, the court noted that the judicial magistrate had dismissed the IO’s application on the ground that the suspect was not produced before him. However, the judge explained that the suspect could have been produced through video link, but no such effort was made by the magistrate.

The court further pointed out that the IO had also failed to file an application seeking the suspect’s production through video link before the magistrate.

The court noted that the perusal of the record revealed that the suspect was sent to prison on judicial remand by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in another case and later the IO had obtained permission from the ATC to interrogate the suspect.

A new case was registered against Armaghan under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data, 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 13 (electronic forgery), 14 (electronic forger), 16 (unauthorised use of identity information), 24 (cyber stalking) and 26 (spoofing) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 read with Sections 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2025