Jeweller held for kidnapping, extortion in Karachi's DHA
KARACHI: Police and Rangers claimed to have arrested a jeweller and his aide in a raid in Defence Housing Authority for his alleged involvement in kidnapping for ransom and extortion cases.
A Rangers spokesperson identified the jeweller as Ayaz Memon Motiwala and his aide as Salman.
Mr Motiwala is a known city trader and social activist. He had also contested 2018 general election on national and provincial assembly seats in the city.
The spokesperson, however, described Motiwala as a ‘high-profile” suspect, who was involved in “extortion and kidnapping for ransom” cases.
“The held suspect used to get extortion from different builders,” he said in a statement.
It added that the suspect also used to collect protection money from different people by presenting himself as a member of a special team of a security institution.
“Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, has no such team,” the spokesperson for the paramilitary force said, without mentioning whether the held suspect was using Rangers’ name for his alleged illegal activities or not.
The Rangers urged the people not to be misled if any fraudster used the name of any security institution and report about such elements to the nearby Rangers checkpoint or their helpline 1101.
The two suspects were handed over to the police for further legal action, the spokesperson said, adding that different FIRs had already been lodged against suspect Motiwala at various police stations of the metropolis.
A case against Motiwala was registered at the Nabi Bux police station on the complaint of a builder, Shahzad, who stated that Motiwala, Salman and seven other armed men came to his under-construction building in Garden on Jan 29 and demanded Rs20 million as extortion.
They threatened him of uploading videos of the building on social media and also threatened him of ‘physical harm’ if he approached the police.
The FIR was lodged under Sections 384 (punishment for extortion), 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2022