Raids and arrests: Electricity theft case registered against shoe factory owner

LAHORE:

The Federal Investigation Agency detected electricity theft at a shoe factory in Bhati Gate and busted an international gateway exchange set up. Two people were arrested.

FIA officials said that the an Electricity, Gas and Oil Antitheft Unit team and the Lahore Electricity Supply Company’s technical team raided a shoe factory on Bhati Gate and detected electricity theft. The factory owner was operating 20 shoe manufacturing units established in a multi-storey building.

The FIA Cyber Crime Circle conducted a raid in New Samanabad and seized an illegal voice-over setup consisting of 64 ports gateways, TP Link routers, a desktop computer, a laptop. The FIA arrested two people identified as Muhammad Umar and Muhammad Ahsan.

The FIA Immigration Unit intercepted four passengers at Allama Iqbal International Airport who carrying illegal travelling documents.  They were intercepted and offloaded by FIA immigration staff members at the airport. Those apprehended have been identified as Muhammad Rafique, Zahid Iqbal, Muhammad Nawaz and Khizar Hayat.

FIA Punjab Director Dr Usman Anwar said Muhammad Rafique was intercepted trying to travel to Malaysia on Flight TG346. He was apprehended and offloaded because the Malaysian immigration visa stamps on his passport were washed. During interrogation, Rafique told the FIA that he had obtained the visa from Ali Shah, a travel agent, for Rs3.4 million.

He also blew the whistle on Zahid Iqbal, a resident of Sialkot, who was trying to travel to South Africa on Flight EK623 with a fake visa sticker on his passport.

Muhammad Nawaz, a resident of Gujranwala, was offloaded from Canada-bound Flight PK789 as there was a fake Canadian visa sticker on his passport. Khizar Hayat, a resident of Gujranwala, was also offloaded from the same flight as his passport, too, carried a fake visa sticker.

The FIA Anti Human Trafficking Circle Police have registered cases against the passengers and the agent, the FIA Punjab director said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th,2014.