Prime suspect remanded in police custody in crypto trader’s kidnap case

An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday granted seven-day police remand of a Counter-Terrorism Department official, said to be the prime suspect, 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 arrested earlier and are currently in jail on judicial remand. The police produced the ninth suspect, Head Constable Ali Raza, before the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts and sought his 14-day remand for interrogation.

The investigative officer stated that the suspect's custody is required for recovery of the rest of the ransom amount and his identification parade before a judicial magistrate. The judge handed over the custody of the suspect to the police on a seven-day physical remand with a direction to produce him on the completion of the remand.

The eight suspects who are in judicial custody include Haris Siddiqui, alias Ashar, Mohammad Rizwan Shah, Tariq Hassan Shah, alias Amir, Syed Muzamil Raza, Umer Jilani, Noman Riffat, Ali Sajjad and Muhammad Umer.

Earlier, the IO had 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.

Meanwhile, victim Arsalan recorded his statement before a judicial magistrate (West) under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). He recounted his ordeal he was subjected to by the suspects, who were also produced from prison.

An FIR was lodged under 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 him. 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.