Senator defrauded of over Rs1.0m

Police launch investigation after alleged imposter deceives Senator Ilyas Bilour

RAWALPINDI:

Even parliamentarians are not safe from being cheated and looted by fraudsters and swindlers.

Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour has lost more than Rs1 million by falling into the trap of a fraudster imposing as an officer of the Rawalpindi police looted the lawmaker.

The senator has registered a case with the Rawalpindi Cantonment Police Station, stating that he received a call on his mobile phone and the caller introduced himself as Assistant Sub-Inspector Shah of Rawalpindi Cantonment Police Station. The senator told the police that the alleged imposter told him that his nephew had been arrested with girls in a raid.

The complainant told the police that the caller asked him to talk to his nephew by handing over the phone to someone, who started begging "I save him from police custody". Bilour told the police that the alleged imposter asked him to transfer Rs1.98 million on different mobile numbers for the release of his ‘nephew’.

The complainant told the police that after transferring money on different mobile numbers without any verification, later, he contacted his nephew, who told him that he was in his factory and nothing like that has happened.

Ilyas Bilour said he has pleaded to the police to take strict action against the fraudster.

Sources said that Senator Bilour has also handed over a list containing 22 mobile phone numbers to the police including women's numbers along with the details of the transferred money.

Police have registered a case under the Fraud and Telegraph Act and opened an investigation.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Rawalpindi police said that according to preliminary investigation, an unknown person from Faisalabad pretending to be a police officer called Senator Ilyas Ahmed Bilour and swindled a huge sum from him.

The police spokesperson said that further investigation was under way and all technical and human intelligence resources were being used for the arrest of the accused.

Gangs of fraudsters and swindlers pretending to be police officials make calls to citizens telling them that their relatives have been caught red-handed in immoral activities. The swindlers make a good fortune from such calls through blackmailing across Punjab including in Rawalpindi.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2022.