RAWALPINDI: A senator was swindled of Rs1.9 million by a fake police official who called him and extorted the money after informing him that his nephew had been arrested for a crime.

Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour lodged a first information report (FIR) with Cantonment police saying that he received a phone call from a man claiming to be an assistant sub inspector at 11am saying that his nephew, Sohail Shamshad had been detained by police over his involvement in a crime.

He said that he spoke to someone on the telephone who sounded like his nephew and he was weeping, adding that the caller gave him different mobile phone numbers and asked him to immediately deposit Rs1.9 million in a Jazz cash account.

The senator said that since he got worried, he deposited the cash in an account without verification from his nephew.

He said that later, when he contacted his nephew, he found him safe and sound at his workplace in a factory.

A police spokesman said that an FIR had been registered against the unknown person under relevant sections of the law and investigation was launched.

According to a preliminary police investigation, the call was made from Faisalabad by someone pretending to be a police official.

The spokesman said that police have been using all technical and human intelligence to trace the culprit and recover the money.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2022