LAHORE – Police in Punjab capital city Wednesday claimed to have arrested members of a gang, who made a plan at the office of Deputy Commissioner to demand cryptocurrency as ransom for an abductee.
According to a report in local media, Lahore DC Office operator Mazhar Abbas was part of the 7-member gang and was held by the police when he was with the deputy commissioner DC during official Pakistan Day event on March 23.
According to police, the criminals’ gang includes constables Mohsin Abbas and Muhammad Arif who are the official guards of high court judge, and Muhammad Tahir (from Lahore) and Sheikh Abdul Rauf (from Faisalabad) are the mini exchange/Bitcoin dealers.
Another suspect in the case Faisal Yousaf is the student of information technology teacher Prof Shahid Naseer whom the gang kidnapped for Rs20 million ransom on March 19.
This gang had received ransom of Rs 20 million in Bitcoin – a leading cryptocurrency – after abducting the professor.
Saddar Division SP (Investigation) Rashid Hidayat told the media that six suspects, including the prime suspect, had been arrested and the kidnapped teacher had been recovered.
He said that Yousaf had made a plan for abduction of his teacher and he also contacted with other suspects for this.
After renting a car from Sheikhupura, the suspects reached the office of deputy commissioner where Mazhar Abbas after replacing the number plate with a green one abducted the professor.
They took Prof Naseer to Sheikhupura where they kept him to execute their plan of obtaining ransom. The SP said next day the complainant of the case, Asmar Sheikh, received a call from the kidnapped person and the gang demanded Rs20m ransom.
Police added that the kidnappers had received the first installment of Rs2.5 million, and were in contact with the family members of the abductee for the remaining amount.
Meanwhile, the SP said, the three teams of expert police officials managed to trace the culprits using latest technology and nabbed them.
The police report containing recommendations for the high-ups said that since it was the first case of its kind in the country, it could boost the trend of use of digital ‘cash’ for ransom and other terror financing issues.
