Phone fraud: Man impersonating Supreme Court Registrar traced to Adiala Jail

Dr Faiz Ali Syed was considered an expert in making calls to judges.

ISLAMABAD:

A man impersonating Supreme Court Registrar on phone to get concession for an under-trial suspect was traced to Adiala Jail on Tuesday.

Officials of Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) have also recovered a cellphone and the sim card last used to make calls to magistrate Rai Liaqut Kharal, asking him to release an under-trial suspect.

The police arrested four people after the initial inquiry, which led to the arrest of Dr Faiz Ali Syed, the main suspect, who was serving a jail term for fraud.

“There are cases against him for making calls to Session Judge Rawalpindi and Special Judge Central Jail Rawalpindi after portraying himself as Registrar of the Supreme Court,” said a police official.

The CIA police took up the case after it was referred to them by the Senior Superintendent of Police on the complaints of magistrate Kharal who had received the call. The caller, portraying himself as the Supreme Court Registrar, asked him to release a suspect under trial saying “he has completed his jail term”.

From the call records, the registered owner of the sim card Mohsin Asghar, a resident of Quaide-e-Azam Colony, Dhamial Camp, Rawalpindi was arrested. Asghar led the police to Sheikh Kashif, owner of Shaal Mehal Rawalpindi, who had asked Asghar for this particular ‘favour’.

Kashif told the police that he had given the cellphone and sim card to his cousin Usman Gul during a hearing. Gul and his accomplice Asif Naseer were in Adiala jail.

When interrogated, Gul and Naseer told the police that the sim card and the phone were passed on to Syed who was considered an expert in making calls to judges. Gul had already met Syed during his previous term in jail, who then made a call to magistrate Kharal for the release of Naseer. However when the magistrate contacted the registrar of the Supreme Court for confirmation, he denied having made the call from his office. Therefore the registrar instructed the police to trace the person behind the phone calls.

“It is nothing new, hundreds of inmates conceal cellphones,” said a police official who was involved in the investigation of the case. He added that similar reported cases have been traced to Adiala Jail. Although denying any official’s support in the recent case, he said it was hard to smuggle a cellphone or a sim card inside a jail without the administration’s knowledge.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2011.