Imposter arrested: Man claiming to be SP sent on 14-day remand

CIA DSP says he had been extorting money, raiding places for four years.

GUJRANWALA:

A man, who was arrested by the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) on Tuesday for fraud, was handed over to the police on a 14-day remand. His accomplice was also arrested. 

Police said the man had been claiming to be a superintendent of police. CIA police said they recovered official documents, a laptop and a fake police employee card from him.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (CIA) Tahir Hussain Gujjar said that the imposter, identified as Amir Tabassum, was arrested from Usman Colony. Gujjar said he had led a team to raid a house where the arrest was made.

He said Tabassum had been introducing himself as SP Moosa Shah and extorting thousands of rupees from the shopkeepers at general stores and pharmacies in the name of ‘inspection’.

He would take away cash and valuables from houses in fake police raids in Sialkot, Narowal, Gujranwala and Lahore. Some people in the area, the DSP said, described him as an ‘American agent’, some as a retired major and others as an intelligence agency officer.

The DSP said he had been fooling people for four years. He said Tabassum had hired Asghar his ‘constable’ to help him and gave him Rs3,000 a day out of the money they made.



DSP Gujjar said that Tabassum was traced from a report that he had signed after ‘inspecting’ a police station. He said the police had noticed the unfamiliar signatures in the record book. When inquired about it, he said, they found out that some one ‘from the CIA’ had come over for inspection, went through polcie records and taken some documents when he left. He said the police had informed the CIA, who formed a team to observe every suspicious-looking man who entered a police station. Police at other police stations in the city had also been told to do so, the DSP added. Police had also started investigating and questioning citizens.

Tabassum, however, told another story. He said he had received an email that he had been appointed by the Central Intelligence Agency. He said the sender had written that this agency was different from the one in USA and that his responsibilities would be different. He said he trusted the sender and started doing what he was told to, including raiding houses.

Asghar told the police that he had first met Tabassum at a pharmacy which he was ‘raiding’.

DSP Gujjar said both the men had been presented before a session judge who handed them over to the police on 14-day remand. He hoped to get evidence from the laptop that was recovered from Tabassum.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2013.