Prime suspect in crypto trader’s kidnap case sent to jail

An anti-terrorism court on Thursday sent the prime suspect in the cryptocurrency trader's abduction case to jail on judicial remand.

The investigative officer produced Ali Raza, said to be a head constable in the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), before the administrative judge of the ATCs on completion of his remand and stated that his custody was no longer needed.

The judge remanded the suspect in judicial custody with a direction to the IO to submit the charge sheet of the case within a stipulated time. Eight suspects -- Haris Siddiqui, alias Ashar, Mohammad Rizwan Shah, Tariq Hassan Shah, alias Amir, Syed Muzamil Raza, Umer Jilani, Noman Riffat, Ali Sajjad and Muhammad Umer -- have already been remanded in judicial custody.

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.

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.