ATC extends police remand of eight suspects in cryptocurrency trader abduction case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday remanded eight suspects in the police custody for another five days in a case pertaining to the abduction of a cryptocurrency trader for ransom.

Mohammad Arsalan, involved in a cryptocurrency business, was kidnapped in a police van on December 25 at 1:40am and released after payment of a ransom of digital coins worth $340,000.

Eight suspects, including two Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials, were later arrested for their alleged involvement in the crime.

Investigation officer Makhdoom Moinuddin produced Haris Siddiqui, alias Ashar, Mohammad Rizwan Shah, Tariq Hassan Shah, alias Amir, Syed Muzamil Raza, Umer Jilani, Noman Riffat, Ali Sajjad and Muhammad Umer before the administrative judge of the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs) on completion of their previous five-day remand and sought an extension in their remand.

The IO informed the judge that 220,000 USDT had been recovered from the suspects in the form of digital currency, a luxury car, prize bonds and cash, while 120,000 USDT was yet to be recovered. He said the suspects' custody was required to recover the rest of the ransom amount and arrest their other accomplices.

The defence counsel, however, opposed the police's plea for extension of the remand requesting the judge to send them to jail on judicial remand.

After hearing both sides, the judge extended the police remand of the suspects for another five days and directed the IO to produce them on January 23 along with an investigation report.

It is noteworthy that unlike volatile cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, USDT is a stablecoin tied to the value of traditional currencies, primarily the US dollar, at a 1:1 ratio. This means that 1 USDT has an equivalent value of 1 US dollar.

Earlier, the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) had said in a statement that a team formed by the AVCC SSP had recovered Rs12 million in cash, prize bonds worth Rs900,000 and one Mercedes Benz car from the arrested suspects.

The FIR was lodged under the sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The complainant stated that private individuals, under the pretext of buying dollars, used a police mobile with police officers in plain clothes to kidnap Arsalan. They then took him from Manghopir to a spot near the Saddar passport office, where they transferred around $340,000 worth of coins from his Binance account to their different accounts. After that they abandoned him near the Mazar-e-Quaid.