Faking it: Lawyers apprehend alleged impostor from court premises

The suspect allegedly pretended to be a lawyer and used to blackmail people in property cases.


Our Correspondent December 24, 2014

KARACHI: Lawyers of the city courts have caught an impostor on Wednesday who was allegedly posing himself as a lawyer and was blackmailing people.

The suspect, Shahid Hussain, son of Hussain Malik, was caught on a tip-off by an anti-corruption team of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) led by Advocate Nisar Ahmed Shar.

"Hussain was blackmailing people by pretending to be a lawyer. The cases he took were mostly of property matters," Advocate Shar told The Express Tribune. "He also forged documents, including power of attorneys of properties."

According to Shar, the suspect used to approach people who had land or property issues. After convincing such people, he used to file litigation on behalf of them and then blackmail the other party. He also hired people for this purpose as an associate and a munshi always accompanied him. Hussain was nabbed from the court of civil judge, Aliya Malik, and the file of a private person was also seized from his possession.

"Hussain had also been caught a year ago for the same reasons. At the time, he had filed an undertaking that he will never do this again," Shar added. "After his apology and assurance, we had let him off."

The KBA handed over the suspect to the city court police, where they booked him under Section 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and deceitfully inducing delivery of property) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The suspect, however, denied the charges and claimed that he was contesting his own case in person as provided in the law. He was shifted to the Risala police station and will be presented before the judicial magistrate of district South on Friday.

Frauds in courts

According to the KBA, seven people were held this year on charges of impersonating and fraud. Among them was a stamp vendor, Ghulam Ali alias Gama, who used to make counterfeit court documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2014.

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