- CIA decides to contact FIA for technical assistance in case.
- Armughan’s call centre “involved’ in illegal activities, scam”.
- CTD to examine weapons seized from suspect’s residence.
KARACHI: As uncertainty continues to shroud the mystery around Mustafa Amir’s murder, his mother has assailed police while calling for action against Investigation Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) South Ali Hassan for defaming her son.
“SSP Ali Hassan never listened to me or understood that my son was missing. It was the police’s job to find out where he was if he was truly missing,” Mustafa’s mother said in a video statement.
The grieving mother also went on to complain that the SSP repeatedly told everyone that her son was a criminal and demanded that the officer explain for whom he was working.
Demanding the dismissal of SSP Hassan, she also called for a case to be registered against him along with the prime suspect.
Her video statement comes after her 23-year-old son’s death was reportedly confirmed by the police Friday night following his prolonged disappearance.
The deceased, a BBA student had gone missing on January 6. Charred mortal remains — presumably his — were found in a car near the Hub checkpost, which had been set on fire along with the body, a few days later.
The case came to light after the prime suspect, Armughan, opened fire at a team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) — a specialised unit of the Karachi police responsible for tackling cases related to murder and extortion — during a raid at his residence in Karachi’s DHA earlier this month.
Other than Armughan, the police have also arrested and recorded Shiraz Bukhari alias Shavez’s statement in the case with investigation officials saying that he worked for Armughan and was involved in allegedly planning both the murder and the disposal of the body.
Meanwhile, Faisal Edhi, head of the rescue and ambulance service, revealed that the Balochistan police had contacted the Edhi Foundation on January 12, and handed over a charred body to them.
Faisal added that the body remained in the Karachi morgue for four days, awaiting the arrival of the deceased’s family as per the SOPs. However, they later buried it in the Mawachh Goth graveyard.
Despite the apparent high-profile nature of the case which has been making headlines recently, the police have failed to secure Armughan’s remand from the trial court and have in fact approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) in this regard.
Also, the DNA report of blood samples found at Armughan’s house has matched with Mustafa’s mother — further strengthening the link between Mustafa’s alleged murder and Armughan.
‘Global drug racket, call centre scam’
Separately, the AVCC suspects Armughan to be part of a global drug racket and involved in international fraud scams, The News reported on Monday.
The new investigation officer of the high-profile murder case, Inspector Muhammad Ali Noonari, has requested the AVCC special magistrate to appoint a bailiff as a supervisor to open the sealed vaults seized from Armughan’s residence.
The suspect lived in a rented 1,000-yard bungalow in Karachi’s upscale Khayaban-e-Momin area within the jurisdiction of the Gizri police station.
The bungalow’s first floor housed a call centre operated by Armughan having around 30 employees and approximately 40 security guards.
The Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) has decided to contact the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for technical assistance in the murder case.
It has been reported that a letter would be sent to the FIA to aid in investigating Armughan’s digital currency and call centre business.
With authorities saying Armughan had not been using his bank accounts, investigation sources have disclosed that the suspect held two CNICs, one in his real name, and another under a false name, Saqib, son of Salman, which he acquired after being arrested and going into hiding in multiple drug-related cases.
Meanwhile, of Armughan’s mobile applications and bank accounts were registered under the names of his employees.
CTD to examine weapons
Speaking on Geo News‘ programme ‘Geo Pakistan’, correspondent Zeeshan Shah revealed that the aforesaid call centre was involved in illegal activities to rack up millions by scamming people.
Providing details of the case he revealed that victim Mustafa’s friendship with 29-year-old Armughan was a few years old.
Meanwhile, the house that the suspect was arrested from, was rented around one-and-a-half years ago and he lived alone.
The first floor of the bungalow, he added, was used for work-related operations whereas the ground floor was used for parties and provisioned disco lights and other relevant features.
However, an intriguing aspect in this regard is that the police were initially unable to discover the hidden room located on the first floor which was used for illegal activities.
The police also recovered as many as 64 laptops from the said residence.
Apart from this, Armughan also had an office at Karachi’s Teen Talwar locality from where he operated his call centre.
Addressing the issue of the involvement of a girl — who allegedly had friendly relations with both Mustafa and Armughan leading to a confrontation at a New Year’s Eve party — Shah said that the police have termed such reports as mere rumours at this stage.
An investigating officer stated that there was so far no clear evidence of her involvement in the case and police had not officially contacted Interpol regarding this matter.
It is pertinent to know that earlier, authorities had revealed that the alleged girl — identified as Ramsha Shahid — involved in the case travelled abroad on January 12 and attempts were being made to contact her via Interpol.
Additionally, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), has been tasked with examining the weapons seized from Armughan’s residence during the Gizri raid during which the police had recovered a cache of weapons and ammunition.
The bullets and weapons recovered by the police have been handed over to the CTD’s Arms Trafficking Monitoring Desk (ATMD) which will assess and ascertain where (if) it has been used before and will provide a report to the AVCC, confirmed the CRD officials.
