Illegal call centre case: Magistrate rejects cybercrime agency’s request to extend Armaghan’s remand

A judicial magistrate on Tuesday rejected the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency's (NCCIA) request to extend physical remand of Armaghan in an illegal call centre case and sent him to prison on judicial remand.

Armaghan, the main suspect in the Mustafa Amir murder case, has also been booked for his alleged involvement in "harassment, cheating, spoofing, phishing and extortion" through an illegal call centre in Defence Housing Authority.

Investigating officer Ameer Ali Khoso presented the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (South) Abdul Saleem Kalhoro on completion of his physical remand and requested the court to extend his remand for ten days for completion of investigation.

When the magistrate repeatedly asked Armaghan whether he had been subjected to maltreatment in custody, he stayed silent.

"Has anybody tortured or threatened you," the magistrate pressed. "It is no use [to tell], do what you want,” the suspect muttered.

The magistrate remarked that the law required him to ask whether a suspect had been maltreated in custody.

"The suspect appears to be disappointed with the process of law," he observed, noting that he had seemed fine and spoke well when he was produced before him for the first remand.

The IO stated that the investigation was at a preliminary yet critical stage and the suspect's custody was needed for recovery and analysis of digital wallet and email account data. He said the suspect's money trail, crypto transactions, and network infrastructures also needed to be traced with identifying his accomplices. The IO said the volume of financial loss suffered by victims would also be determined. After hearing the IO, the magistrate rejected his request for extension in the suspect's physical remand and sent him to prison. He remarked that the suspect had already been on physical remand for one to two months. "Do not do anything that alienate people from the system," he added.

In the remand application, the IO further stated that the suspect disclosed that he was operating an illegal call centre under various dummy names including AIDA Communication, AMA Communications, AIM Solutions and HMCS since 2018, using fake personas and scripted communication to impersonate officials of credible agencies such as United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Spectrum and AT&A to hoodwink victims into disclosing sensitive personal as well as debit/credit card data.

Then the unlawfully obtained data was used to carry out unauthorized financial transactions, purchase cryptocurrency, and procure drugs on darkweb, he said, adding that Armaghan maintained and operated multiple digital wallet accounts, including Binance, BitGo, Paxful, NoOnes, and Coinbase.

"He further disclosed using third-party local bank accounts under the names of Rahim Bux, Abdul Rahim and Muhammad Hanif for transferring and withdrawing proceeds of crime," the IO said. "The accused has confessed to using illegal crypto mining machines, purchasing stolen data from the Dark Web, and operating within an organized cybercrime network."

On May 2, District and Sessions Judge (South) Suresh Kumar had set aside the judicial magistrate's April 29 order that rejected the IO's plea for grant of physical custody of the suspect. The judge granted five-day physical remand of Armaghan and ordered the jail authorities to hand his custody over to the IO.