Opportunists: Impersonator arrested for extortion

The petitioner’s son had been detained by law enforcers, she had claimed.

KARACHI: The police informed the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday that an impersonator, who had extorted money from the family of a missing person for his release by using the names of the judge, interior ministry and Rangers DG, has been tracked down.

Garden police SHO informed the bench that in compliance with the court’s order, FIR 107/2014 has been registered under Sections 419, 420, 468, 471, 506 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The FIR was registered on the complaint of Feroz Begum against Muhammad Ameen and Captain Arshad. The investigation officer of the case has arrested Ameen, the SHO added.

Headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the bench was hearing a petition seeking the recovery of Muhammad Irshad, a KMC employee, from the alleged illegal detention of the law enforcers. His mother, Feroz Begum, had gone to the court alleging that Rangers personnel had detained him on October 2, 2013, from Garden when he was on his way to work. She produced the news clippings, quoting the law enforcers of having arrested a target killer by the name of Muhammad Irshad.

On Tuesday, the petitioner had complained that after she had filed the petition, two persons, identified as Muhammad Ameen and Captain Arshad, had approached them and taken between Rs500,000 to Rs600,000 for his release.

The petitioner also produced a number of ‘release orders’ and ‘clearance certificate’ letters prepared by the two men in the fake name of a judge, the Rangers DG Rizwan Akhtar, the adviser to the interior secretary and others. Appearing on court notice, the Garden SHO said that an FIR of the incident had been registered and Ameen has been arrested. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2014.