Mustafa Amir's mother urges action against police officer for 'defaming' slain son

• CIA decides to contact FIA for technical assistance in case.
• Armughan's call centre "involved in illegal activities, scam".
• CTD to examine weapons seized from suspect's residence.
  

KARACHI: As uncertainty continues to shroud the mystery around Mustafa Amir's murder, his mother has assailed police while calling for action against Investigations Superintendent of Police (SP) Ali Hassan for defaming her son.

"SP [Ali] Hassan never listened to me or understood that my son was missing. It was the police’s job to find out where he was if he was truly missing," Mustafa's mother said in a video statement.

The grieving mother also went on to complain that the SP repeatedly told everyone that her son was a criminal and demanded that the officer explain for whom he was working.

Demanding the dismissal of SP Hassan, she also called for a case to be registered against him along with the prime suspect.

Her video statement comes after her 23-year-old son's death was reportedly confirmed by the police Friday night following his prolonged disappearance.

The deceased, a BBA student had gone missing on January 6. Charred mortal remains — presumably his — were found in a car near the Hub checkpost, which had been set on fire along with the body, a few days later.

The case came to light after the prime suspect, Armughan, opened fire at a team of the Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) — a specialised unit of the Karachi police responsible for tackling cases related to murder and extortion — during a raid at his residence in Karachi's DHA earlier this month. 

Other than Armughan, the police have also arrested and recorded Shiraz Bukhari alias Shavez's statement in the case with investigation officials saying that he worked for Armughan and was involved in allegedly planning both the murder and the disposal of the body.

Meanwhile, Faisal Edhi, head of the rescue and ambulance service, revealed that the Balochistan police had contacted the Edhi Foundation on January 12, and handed over a charred body to them.

Faisal added that the body remained in the Karachi morgue for four days, awaiting the arrival of the deceased’s family as per the SOPs. However, they later buried it in the Mawachh Goth graveyard.

Despite the apparent high-profile nature of the case which has been making headlines recently, the police had failed to secure Armughan's remand from the trial court.

Also, the DNA report of blood samples found at Armughan's house has matched with Mustafa's mother — further strengthening the link between Mustafa's alleged murder and Armughan.

Suspect to be produced before SHC tomorrow

On the legal front, the police have submitted a request for the exhumation of the body buried by the Edhi Foundation — suspected to be of Mustafa's.

The Investigation Officer (IO), in the application to the Sessions Judge West, has cited the need for postmortem and a DNA test for exhuming the deceased's body.

Approving the plea, the Judicial Magistrate West allowed the victim's exhumation and directed the Sindh Secretary Health to constitute a medical board for the exhumation and submit a report within seven days.

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the police to produce the primary suspect, Armughan, before the court tomorrow (Tuesday) at 9:30am.

The court's orders, which also called for the provision of the case's original record, came during the hearing of the plea filed by the authorities challenging the trial court's decision against granting the suspect's remand.

During the hearing, Sindh's Acting Prosecutor General Muntazir Mehdi apprised the court that a kidnapping case was registered at the Darakhshan Police Station which was transferred to the AVCC after a ransom call was received demanding Rs20 million.

The police, he added, then raided a bungalow in the DHA during which two police personnel were wounded.

However, the trial court had refused to grant the suspect's remand without any reason, he lamented.

At this, Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput issued orders for Armughan to be produced for the court.

The judge further remarked that the court would only issue orders about the request mentioned in the plea.

'Global drug racket, call centre scam'

Separately, the AVCC suspects Armughan to be part of a global drug racket and involved in international fraud scams, The News reported on Monday.

The new investigation officer of the high-profile murder case, Inspector Muhammad Ali Noonari, has requested the AVCC special magistrate to appoint a bailiff as a supervisor to open the sealed vaults seized from Armughan's residence.

The suspect lived in a rented 1,000-yard bungalow in Karachi’s upscale Khayaban-e-Momin area within the jurisdiction of the Gizri police station.

The bungalow's first floor housed a call centre operated by Armughan having around 30 employees and approximately 40 security guards.

The Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) has decided to contact the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for technical assistance in the murder case.

It has been reported that a letter would be sent to the FIA to aid in investigating Armughan's digital currency and call centre business.

With authorities saying Armughan had not been using his bank accounts, investigation sources have disclosed that the suspect held two CNICs, one in his real name, and another under a false name, Saqib, son of Salman, which he acquired after being arrested and going into hiding in multiple drug-related cases.

Meanwhile, of Armughan’s mobile applications and bank accounts were registered under the names of his employees.

CTD to examine weapons

Speaking on Geo News' programme 'Geo Pakistan', correspondent Zeeshan Shah revealed that the aforesaid call centre was involved in illegal activities to rack up millions by scamming people.

Providing details of the case he revealed that victim Mustafa's friendship with 29-year-old Armughan was a few years old.

Meanwhile, the house that the suspect was arrested from, was rented around one-and-a-half years ago and he lived alone.

The first floor of the bungalow, he added, was used for work-related operations whereas the ground floor was used for parties and provisioned disco lights and other relevant features.

However, an intriguing aspect in this regard is that the police were initially unable to discover the hidden room located on the first floor which was used for illegal activities.

The police also recovered as many as 64 laptops from the said residence.

Apart from this, Armughan also had an office at Karachi's Teen Talwar locality from where he operated his call centre.

Addressing the issue of the involvement of a girl — who allegedly had friendly relations with both Mustafa and Armughan leading to a confrontation at a New Year's Eve party — Shah said that the police have termed such reports as mere rumours at this stage.

An investigating officer stated that there was so far no clear evidence of her involvement in the case and police had not officially contacted Interpol regarding this matter.

It is pertinent to know that earlier, authorities had revealed that the alleged girl — identified as Ramsha Shahid — involved in the case travelled abroad on January 12 and attempts were being made to contact her via Interpol.

Additionally, the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), has been tasked with examining the weapons seized from Armughan's residence during the Gizri raid during which the police had recovered a cache of weapons and ammunition.

The bullets and weapons recovered by the police have been handed over to the CTD's Arms Trafficking Monitoring Desk (ATMD) which will assess and ascertain where (if) it has been used before and will provide a report to the AVCC, confirmed the CRD officials.