ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: The mystery surrounding the brief abduction and robbing of the driver of a brother of Interior Minister Rehman Malik has thickened as the FIR that the alleged victim registered with the Kohsar police on October 22 has been sealed.

Dawn has learnt from police sources that the sealing took place the very next day after investigators suspected that the robbers had been seizing and tampering with material evidence, like CCTV footage and cellphone records.

However, SHO Sajjad Shah Bukhari of Kohsar police hedged all the inquiries by Dawn about the alleged incident, as did Mr Khalid Malik, the minister’s brother.

Driver Mohammad Shafaat had reported that men, looking like intelligence operatives, intercepted his car at Jinnah Super Market, seized and blindfolded him and drove him to Rawat.

There, at a petrol station, the men freed him and left after taking some documents, a passport, a national identity card and some Rs3 million from his car – but leaving the car behind.

When police investigators reached the petrol station next day, the sources said, the station staff confirmed the driver’s story but also informed that some tough men had visited the station before the police and took away at gunpoint the CCTV recording of the event.

Later, the investigator checked the record of the driver’s cellphone which surprisingly showed his presence somewhere else, not Rawat, at that time.

A police source said FIRs are usually sealed in the cases where sensitive material or office-holders are involved; or when police want to proceed with a case at an opportune time.

Some police officers see “dark politics” behind the mysterious case of the driver of a brother of the interior minister.