Police arrest prime suspect in Gadap mobile phone theft case
Malir police say Babar alias Sahil Salman was held on his way to sell the handsets, with 40 phones and a pistol recovered from him.
KARACHI: Police in Karachi's Gadap Town have arrested the man they describe as the mastermind of a scheme in which 59 women were lured to a farmhouse on the promise of job interviews and robbed of their mobile phones, Malir police said on Monday.
Malir SSP Dr Abdul Khaliq Pirzada told Dawn that the suspect was identified as Babar alias Sahil Salman and that 40 mobile phones were recovered from his possession. Gadap City police said a pistol was also seized from him and that he was arrested while on his way to sell the stolen handsets, ARY News reported.
According to Dawn, police had earlier arrested Waqas, who had booked the farmhouse, and Nargis, the event coordinator. Shahzad, accused of helping the main suspect escape on a motorcycle after the theft, was also taken into custody. ARY News reported that other co-accused in the case have already been arrested.
The two reports differ on when the incident took place. Dawn said the women were brought to the farmhouse in Gadap on Oct 1; ARY News said it happened on Sept 30. Both accounts put the number of women at 59.
ARY News reported that a job advertisement had been posted on social media, after which the women were told they would be interviewed for an event. The 59 were taken to the farmhouse in two buses for what they were told was training. Once there, they were told that recording was not permitted and that they would have to hand over their mobile phones.
The suspect collected the handsets in a bag and later fled the farmhouse with an accomplice, taking the phones with him, according to ARY News.
The affected women then went to Gadap Town police station, and after the matter came to light, police went to the farmhouse and took its manager, Waqas, and coordinator Nargis into custody, ARY News reported.
According to the outlet, Salman remained at large after the crime and police had been conducting raids to arrest him. ARY News also reported that he had been using a mobile SIM registered in another person's name.
The police did not give further details of the investigation or say when the arrested suspects would be produced before a court.
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