FIA gets Armaghan’s custody for interrogation in illegal call centre, cryptocurrency case

A sessions court on Friday remanded Armaghan, the main suspect in Mustafa Amir murder case, in the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) custody for five days for questioning in a case pertaining to an illegal call centre and purchase of cryptocurrency.

District and Sessions Judge (South) Suresh Kumar set aside a judicial magistrate's order that had rejected the FIA's plea for grant of physical custody of the suspect, who is in jail on judicial remand. He ordered the jail authorities to hand over the custody of Armaghan to Investigation Officer (IO) Ameer Ali Khoso.

The IO was instructed to make arrangements for shifting of the suspect to the FIA's Cybercrime Reporting Centre under fulproof security for investigation.

The judge directed the IO to produce the suspect before the relevant magistrate upon completion of his physical remand for extension to the remand or otherwise.

The IO moved a criminal revision application before the district and sessions judge, requesting him to set aside the judicial magistrate's April 29 order and grant the custody of the suspect for 14 days so that "fair and impartial investigation may be carried [out] as it is in the prime interest of justice".

During the hearing on Friday, the suspect was produced in the court from jail via video link on the judge's direction. The FIA prosecutor stated that the physical custody of Armaghan was required to interrogate him about the illegal call centre and purchase of cryptocurrency. He said the suspect's physical custody was necessary for his contact and thump impression to decode emails, softwares and gadgest seized from his house.

The judge noted that as per the record, the suspect was already remanded to judicial custody by the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts, adding that the IO sought permission to arrest and interrogate the suspect in the present case in jail, which was granted by the ATC judge on April 24.

The judge said that it was well-settled law that police could not take away the custody of an accused without obtaining permission from the court that had remanded him in judicial custody. He added that the IO had already been granted permission for interrogation and arrest and that the magistrate dismissed his plea for physical remand on the ground that the accused was not produced before him.

He questioned how the suspect could be produced physically before the magistrate if he was already in judicial custody in another case. However, he pointed out, the suspect could be produced through video link, for which no efforts were made by the magistrate and even the IO had not filed such an application for Armaghan's production through video link before the magistrate.

"The contention raised by AD Legal FIA requires consideration, therefore, the instant criminal revision application is allowed and impugned order dated 29.04.2025 is set aside," the judge ruled.

"Consequently, police custody remand of accused Armaghan Kamran is granted with effect from 02.05.2025 to 06.05.2025." On April 29, Khoso had approached the judicial magistrate (South) to obtain the custody of Armaghan, who is in jail, for interrogation. He stated that a new FIR was lodged against Armaghan on April 16 for allegedly running an illegal call centre. He said the suspect was previously arrested by the FIA in a money laundering case, adding that he was interrogated and formally arrested in the present case at the Central Jail Karachi following a no-objection certificate issued by the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts.

During interrogation, the IO said Armaghan admitted to his involvement in running an illegal call centre where he trained his agents to impersonate officials and representatives of legitimate entities such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and telecommunication providers like AT&T to hoodwink victims into disclosing their sensitive personal and bank data.

He said the data was subsequently used to facilitate unauthorised financial transactions and the purchase of cryptocurrency. Armaghan had multiple digital wallet accounts, including Binance, Paxful, NoOnes (under the name Coinfactorypk), and others, the FIA officer said and added that the suspect disclosed that in 2024, he purchased two mining machines from Ishfaq Ahmed for Rs1.8 million with the intention to launch his own digital currency.

He said that Armaghan needed to be further questioned about the use of dark web in illegal activities, cold/paper wallets and identifying accomplices. The suspect had not disclosed complete details regarding payment methods, transaction sources, credentials and logs of digital wallets, spoofed software and associated merchants, as well as the purpose of cryptocurrency mining and sources of dark web access, he added.