On the night of May 9 in the Pakistani city of Lahore, passersby gathered on Ferozepur Road by the side of Rohi Nalla and informed the police.
The body was taken into custody when police arrived on the scene, but it was almost impossible to identify.
When no identification document was found inside the body’s clothes, when a search was launched, the police came to know that an expensive MG vehicle was parked about half a kilometer away from the body. Both the vehicle and the body were taken into custody on suspicion.
The owner of the car was soon identified as Salman Shaukat, a professor at a private university.
After registering the FIR, investigation teams were formed to trace the murder.
Kamran Adil, head of the Lahore police’s investigation wing, told Urdu News that it was a difficult case. “It was dark at the place where the body was dumped. Since most of the fences are located around Rohi Nalla, we hoped that with the help of surveillance cameras installed on private buildings, any trace could be found.
And then 24-hour footage from two dozen cameras was searched and it was discovered that two vehicles had entered the area late at night on May 8. The body was removed from a vehicle and parked half a kilometer away.
Adnan, the investigating officer in the case, said tracing the other vehicle was another test.
“We had to use Safe City cameras, but the problem was that four major roads came to the confluence of the Rohi Nalla. Then soon we found out about this vehicle that it had entered Lahore from Kasur a day earlier. It later turned out to be a rental car, but we reached out to the renter.
It took police about a month to reach the suspects. Zeeshan, who rented a car, was not the real culprit.
Who was the real culprit?
According to the investigation report submitted to the court so far, the real accused in the murder is an ACCA student named Faraz. Faraz is a resident of Nawab Town, Lahore. He and his wife both run a corrupt currency business.
Faraz befriended Professor Salman Shaukat on Facebook and met him twice at various tea houses in Lahore. Meanwhile, Faraz told the professor how he buys cryptocurrency and it is a lucrative business. And there are ways to get rich overnight using just credit cards and no investment. And that he is an expert in this work.
When the police arrested Zeeshan, all the accused went into hiding. It took a long time for the police to reach Faraz.
According to DIG Kamran Adil, the two vehicles used by the accused. Both had trackers. All data was obtained from tracker companies. Mobile locations of the accused were also obtained. Faraz was arrested from Bahawalnagar with the help of this data.
In his confessional statement to police, Faraz said the professor had six to seven credit cards. Worth more than 5 million.
Adnan Masood, the investigator of the case, said that after receiving this information, Faraz gathered his gang. The rest of the gang included Zeeshan, Hassan Ghafoor and Ahmed Iqbal.
Why did you kill the professor?
Police believe the suspects also belong to a group of international hackers. The group buys and sells cryptocurrencies on the global black market through credit cards.
When the professor was called for the third time, the four accused were together. He tried to persuade the professor to immediately buy cryptocurrency with his credit cards, but he did not. Which made things worse.
According to Adnan Masood, “Professor Salman Shaukat might have intervened and handed over his cards to him, but the fact was that the professor did not have money in his cards and he wanted to keep his illusion.”
The accused thought that the professor might have become suspicious. At the same time, they got out of there and stabbed them to death in the professor’s car.
After the murder, the suspects immediately searched the professor and took out credit cards. When he tried to use the cards, his hands and feet swelled when he saw that the cards were empty.
1500 and 3500 from one card while the rest of the cards were either expired or over limit.
The accused then hurriedly disposed of the professor’s body and went into hiding.
Ahmed Iqbal, the fourth member of the gang, is still at large. Police are also searching for the hacker gang with whom they were in touch.
According to the investigation of the case, the physical remand of the three accused has been completed and they are in jail while the hammer with which the professor was killed has also been seized.
On July 6, the court remanded the three accused to jail on a 14-day judicial remand while police are working to complete the challan and search for a fourth member of the gang.