Extortion bid: Police arrest teacher who used victim’s own identity against him

The culprit had been using a SIM registered in the victim’s name.

KARACHI: Despite the fact that Irfan Ahmed, a thirty-something schoolteacher, had meticulously tried to wipe out his own digital tracks while trying to pull off an extortion bid, he could not outfox the police, who arrested him and his accomplice, Faisal Hussain, on August 18. The SIM card used to demand the money was registered in the victim’s name.

Both men had been calling the owner of a well-known education centre in DHA and asking him for Rs400,000. The duo roamed around in the city using a black-tinted Mitsubishi Mini Pajero with a fake number plate. Ahmed is a computer science teacher at Army Public School’s Saddar branch and was also working at the education centre as an information technology administrator. He was apprehended in Gizri.

“We traced the number and were baffled to find out that the SIM was registered in the victim’s name,” said Clifton SP Dr Farrukh Ahmed. “It was a dead end for us. The SIM was used to only call the victim. There was no other number on the record.”

People closely related to the victims are usually involved in extortion cases where personal information has been used, said Dr Farrukh. “Nine employees of the centre were suspected, including Ahmed.”

But the police was determined to break out of the impasse – they eventually dug out the unique number of the International Mobile Equipment Identity chip embedded in the cell phone. “Then we checked all the SIM cards that were used in the phone. One belonged to Ahmed,” said the Clifton SP.

The culprits also had an assortment of documents to slip through law enforcers’ hands – a fake CNIC complete with a colourful hologram to make it appear genuine, an original security pass to the 5 Corps premises and a fabricated anti-corruption card.

“Ahmed didn’t confess immediately and kept insisting he couldn’t be arrested as he was an employee of the 5 Corps,” said Dr Farrukh.

Ahmed avoided staring into the cameras when he was presented before the media after the press conference. When asked why he registered the SIM in his employer’s name, he simply replied, “For fun.”

The employers’ CNIC number was used to buy the SIM. As per the rules, no franchise is supposed to sell a SIM until the buyer presents his or her own CNIC photocopy.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2012.