MULTAN, April 15: A prisoner at the district jail, accused in a number of dacoity cases, has allegedly been defrauding people even in captivity for quite some time now by promising them to return their stolen vehicles against ransom.

Faqir Muhammad alias Fakhar Iqbal Fakhari is learnt to have been trapping people, whose vehicles have been stolen, by contacting them through letters. His unstamped letters carry all the relevant information about the stolen vehicles, their make, colour, model, chassis and registration numbers.

He refers to the ransom as a reasonable quantity of sweets to get back the vehicle, suggesting his target in a sympathetic tone that "this option will be better for you instead of becoming a rolling stone in search of your property."

However, he also warns his target against talking about him with any other person. His letters contain ample information on how one can meet a prisoner by giving details of the inmate and his barrack number.

According to his victims, they didn't readily believe that his correspondence carry weight. "However, a second thought led us to believe the facts as true because the letters had all the correct information about their vehicles."

From there, they slipped into Fakhari's trap and lost their hard earned money after being deprived of their vehicles. Four cases against the swindler have come into the knowledge of the law-enforcers so far, though the victims claim there may be more. The incidents started surfacing after one of the victims raised voice at the forums concerned - from the Multan Range DIG to the federal secretary.

A retired railways official, Hazoor Bakhsh Pasha, has accepted the challenge to unearth the racket supporting Fakhari. The car of Dr Zeeshan Pasha, son of Hazoor Pasha, was stolen from the parking lot of the Nishter Medical College and Hospital on Nov 14 last year. A case was lodged with the Cantonment police station, but the police remained clueless even after two months.

On Jan 14 last, the Pashas received a letter from Fakhari, of barrack No 5. Hazoor Pasha said he met Fakhari the next day through a deputy superintendent of the jail and he (Fakhari) revealed in the meeting that how some members of his gang took away the car of his son in connivance with the parking lot contractor and how his men tried to sell that out in Bhakkar.

The meeting remained inconclusive, as Fakhari demanded ransom which Mr Pasha refused to pay. The family received another letter on Jan 17 from Fakhari and an anonymous call, urging them to meet Fakhari on Jan 19.

Hazoor Pasha this time held a meeting with Fakhari through proper way by getting his name registered on the visitors' book and Fakhari demanded Rs70,000 as ransom and directed Pasha to bring the money at Kabirwala Saddar police station in Khanewal on 29th where he had to go for hearing in some cases.

He said the police officials accompanying the prisoners would facilitate their meeting if he (Pasha) would give them a Rs100 note. However, Hazoor Pasha met DIG Talat Mahmood Tariq on Jan 20 last and apprised him of the whole episode.

The DIG, who had assumed the charge in the Multan range on that day, referred him to his reader, who recorded his statement and directed him to come after a couple of days so that he could gather information about Fakhari from the Cantonment police SHO.

The reader, however, could not glean information about the prisoner due to what he explained to Mr Pasha that the SHO had been too busy to pass on the required information.

On the fixed date, Mr Pasha, along with his two acquaintances, went to Kabirwala and everything happened according to the plan chalked out by Fakhari during their previous meeting. Head-constable Rab Nawaz and constable Manzoor (driver) facilitated the meeting and hand-over of the ransom.

At that time, Muhammad Ashfaq, a resident of Jehanian, also came there and handed over a packet to Fakhari. It later transpired that he had paid Rs10,000 for the recovery of his motorbike.

Both Pasha and Ashfaq were told that there vehicles would be available outside the Khanewal railway station after 3.30pm. They, however, waited till late in the night at the designated place, but didn't get their vehicles.

Identical is the case of Allah Rakha of Jehanian tehsil in Khanewal and Haji Rahimdin of Chah Boharrwala (Multan) in that the former had paid Rs75,000 as ransom for the recovery of his pick-up and the latter Rs87,000 for his wagon.

It is learnt that the victims demanded their money from Fakhari, who in response hurled death threats to them. Hazoor Pasha, however, didn't give up his struggle and kept on meeting the jail and police authorities to ask them to take action against the culprit.

He quoted district jail deputy superintendent Naveed Ashraf as informing him that Fakhari had agreed to pay back the ransom amount provided he gave up pursuing the case. At this, Pasha again met the DIG, who summoned head-constable Rab Nawaz and constable Manzoor and found them guilty of negligence on Feb 12.

Khanewal DPO Dr Jameel Ahmad dismissed Rab Nawaz and suspended Manzoor from the service on the DIG's orders. However, the police authorities have yet to show any interest in tracking down Fakhari and his accomplices.

Ironically, the contents of Fakhari's letters suggest that the information has been gleaned from the FIRs lodged by the police. The accused has also used jail's stationery in one of his letters sent to his victims.

Hazoor Pasha alleged that Fakhari had been living in a normal cell until recently despite the fact that he had more than a dozen cases of dacoity against him. He said he had learnt that a prisoner should be confined to a special cell if he had more than four cases of heinous nature against him.

On April 7, handcuffed Fakhari publicly beat up Mumtaz Husain and his mother outside a court in Multan for pursuing a case of vehicle theft against him. When contacted, jail superintendent Qazi Aslam said the department was responsible for any act of a prisoner only inside the jail. He said they (captives) remained in police custody while going to appear in trail courts.

He claimed that Fakhari had been detained in an isolated cell from the day he was brought here in January 2003. "Using the jail stationery is not a big deal, as one could have it from courts (perhaps, he was referring to the sellers of judicial papers)." He said his deputy Naveed had talked to the accused about Pasha's complaint and he had admitted what he did in the first instance.

The DIG, on the other hand, said the complaints other than Pasha's had just come into his knowledge and he could decide after going through all of them in a next couple of days.

Meanwhile, DIG (prisons department) Abdul Sattar Aajiz quizzed Fakhari in jail the other day for almost two hours. A source told Dawn that Fakhari appeared to be a hardened criminal, as he didn't give out any solid information during interrogation. Pasha and other victims of the swindler also demand a thorough probe to track down the culprits.