FIA refers fraud case to police

LAHORE: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has referred a matter of fraud with a college teacher to the city police claiming the matter does not fall under its jurisdiction.

Dr Liaqat Ali of Govt College of Township, in a complaint to FIA Cyber Crime Circle, had revealed that he was deprived of Rs 85,500 in the name of education minister Rana Mashhood. He maintained in his application, a copy available with The News, that his principal directed him to contact a person on his cell number as the minister wanted to engage him (Dr Liaqat) to teach Urdu to Chinese.

“On the directions of the principal, I called Rana Shahid who got me connected to Rana Mashhood (an impersonator) on phone.” The teacher said he was directed to deposit the money in a bank account and reach the Governor’s House for a meeting in this regard. He added he deposited the said amount and later came to know this was a fraud and meanwhile the money deposited was also withdrawn from a bank in Karachi.

In its letter to Lahore CCPO (copy available with The News), the FIA observed that the complaint regarding fraud through internet banking did not fall under the jurisdiction of Cyber Crime Cell. FIA has now asked the police for further legal action. An official of the Higher Education Department (HED) Punjab said the department would also look into the matter as there were reports of similar incidents with two other faculty members of other colleges.