IO granted time to submit charge sheet against Armaghan in illegal call centre case

A judicial magistrate has given more time to the investigation officer to submit a charge-sheet against Armaghan, the main suspect in Mustafa Amir murder case, in another case pertaining to running an illegal call centre.

Armaghan has been booked for his alleged involvement in harassment, cheating, spoofing, phishing and extortion through an illegal call centre in Defence Housing Authority.

The investigation officer (IO), Ameer Ali Khoso, appeared before the judicial magistrate (South) as the case came up for hearing.

The IO stated that he needed more time to submit the charge-sheet as required under the Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). He said he was yet to get the relevant record, due to which he could not submit the charge-sheet.

Allowing his request, the magistrate ordered the IO to submit the charge-sheet on the next date of hearing without fail.

Earlier, the IO had informed the court that Armaghan operated an illegal call centre under various dummy names since 2018, using fake personas and scripted communication to impersonate officials of credible foreign agencies to hoodwink victims into disclosing sensitive personal as well as debit/credit card data.

Then the unlawfully obtained data was used to carry out unauthorised financial transactions, purchase cryptocurrency and procure drugs on dark web, 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 organised cybercrime network."