‘Stockbroker was murdered over failure to pay back owed amount’

Karachi

A suspect – identified as Faizan – arrested in connection with the July 28 murder of a stockbroker, Faran Ahmed, in the city’s Al-Falah Society has confessed to his involvement in the killing, officials of the Korangi District police said on Friday.

Sharing details of the arrest, the Korangi SSP said the investigation team checked for the whereabouts of all persons nominated in the FIR lodged at the Al-Falah police station on the day of Faran’s death.

The suspect, Faizan, was picked up in a raid conducted on an informant’s tip, said the officer.

He added that once taken in for interrogation, Faizan disclosed that he had loaned Rs400,000 to the victim, Faran, and the latter was refusing to pay him back despite repeated requests. According to the SSP, Faizan also told interrogators that the victim had also taken money amounting to millions from several other people.

Faizan, added the officer, admitted that Faran’s refusal to pay back the owed amount had ruffled many feathers. However, the police were looking for further details and further investigations remain underway to locate and arrest the other people involved in the murder.

Faran Ahmed, 35, who worked at a brokerage firm at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, died at a hospital on July 28 and his brother Nazeer Ahmed approached the police this past Monday to have an FIR registered against the murderers.

A few months ago, some friends of Faran had approached him to purchase shares through him. Under an agreement, they purchased shares of a company worth Rs4 million. The company had recently suffered a loss and the value of its shares declined following which Faran’s friends demanded their money back. They also had an FIR registered against the company.

The complainant said the night of July 27, six or seven of Faran’s friends along with eight other men had barged into their house where a hot argument took place. They misbehaved with the family and took Faran to the dining hall where they tortured him with knife and blades, continuously demanding their money back.

They kept torturing Faran the whole night and in the wee hours of July 28, they left after robbing valuables from the house and leaving the stockbroker unconscious. The family took Faran to a private hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. 

A few days after the incident, the Sindh police chief had formed a probing team under the supervision of DIG Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) Karachi Sultan Ali Khowaja to probe the murder and tasked the SSP of the Special Investigation Unit to carry out the inquiry.