National Accountability Bureau of Pakistan itself helped Tauqir Sadiq,
Ex- Chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority in fleeing Pakistan in one way or the other but the Rana Shahid, who was awarded Tamgha-e-Imtiaz as well as the President’s Police Medal for his extraordinary detective skills in the otherwise high-profile blind cases, was assigned this difficult job on Dec 22, 2012. He and his team succeeded in unearthing the hidden Culprit.
Tauqir Sadiq was behind the alleged Rs82 billion Ogra scam. His fleeing the country raised a big question mark on the role of several agencies, including the ISI, MI, IB, FIA, immigration, FIU, ANF, NAB, police and others, Sadiq successfully fled to Sharjah on June 21, 2012 despite being on the ECL since January 2012. There was no hint of his departure from the official record at any of the country’s airports or other legal land routes.
As the Supreme Court was repeatedly asking the NAB to arrest the accused, it
later emerged from the upright investigator of the bureau that the NAB’s top bosses were involved in helping the accused to escape instead of arresting him. After having being disappointed by the NAB’s top bosses to get the man arrested, the Supreme Court last year directed the IG Punjab Police to find and produce the person.
It was a turning point when the IGP Punjab assigned one of his shining police investigators, Rana Shahid. Rana Shahid was assigned this difficult job on Dec 22, 2012. Immediately, he along with his team, including SP Karamatullah Malik and Inspector Mazhar Hameed Qazi, collected all the details about Tauqir Sadiq and his family members and close relatives, both inside Pakistan and outside. He dug out all the SIM cards used by both the accused and his 11 family members and close relations.
Sadiq had eight mobile numbers registered in his name but all were non-active except 03334761744. Besides following other clues, he got all the detailed activity of this number and found that on Dec 10, 2012, this particular mobile was switched off in the International Departure Lounge of the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi. It was apparently a great achievement, as the officer thought he had traced the accused. He immediately wrote to the FIA to get the data of all the 11 international flights. There was no passenger with the name of Tauqir Sadiq.
But to his satisfaction, he got the names of Sadiq’s wife and two daughters in one of the outgoing flights — PK 268. They had traveled from Karachi to Kathmandu. This was all done in just one day by this police detective. He was assigned the job on Dec 22 and had gathered all this information on Dec 23. On the first available flight on Dec 26, 2012, he flew to Kathmandu. There he used his Kathmandu police contacts, which have been working with him in some foreign UN missions, to search for the fugitive. With the help of the Kathmandu police, he searched 248 hotels but did not find Tauqir or his family in any of them.
He then approached the Kathmandu immigration office and got the visa copy of Tauqir Sadiq’s wife, where their stay was shown to be in Nandni Hotel, which too appeared to be false. The police officer then met Pakistan’s Ambassador Arshad Saud Khosa, who refused to assist him in any manner.
Rana Shahid tried to convince him that it was the apex court of the country that had passed directions for the arrest of the high-profile accused, but the envoy said he would only help if asked by the rulers of Islamabad. Arshad Saud wrote a letter to the foreign secretary but got a negative reply. Then the police officer and his team again reverted to their own contacts in Kathmandu and got it confirmed from the immigration record that Tauqir Sadiq had arrived in Kathmandu on Nov 25, 2012 and left for Sharjah on Dec 26, 2012.
From the Kathmandu immigration record, the police team, led by Rana, got the fundamental clue i.e. Tauqir Sadiq’s Dubai mobile number, which was registered in his own name. It was also in the knowledge of Rana that Tauqir was using two passports, one blue and the other an ordinary one. From Kathmandu, Rana sought from Islamabad passport authorities to get both of the accused’s passports cancelled besides issuing his red warrant. He also sought preparation of the deportation papers of the accused.
The team then returned to Pakistan and left for Dubai on January 14 along with the honest officer of NAB Waqas Ahmad Khan, who on Thursday exposed the dirty role of his seniors in the escape of former Ogra chairman besides doing a wonderful investigation to unearth this case of mega corruption. On the morning of January 15, the team led by Rana approached the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi and met the ambassador. The Ambassador, Jamil Ahmad Khan, told the team that he had not received any direction from the Foreign Office with regard to Tauqir Sadiq.
He was requested to immediately contact the UAE’s foreign ministry to help the Pakistani team to arrest the accused. Ambassador Jamil responded positively following which the team met the local CID officers and shared all the details about the accused. The same day, January 15, Tauqir Sadiq’s name was put on the wanted list.
The Foreign Office in Pakistan was asked on January 1, 2013 to pass all the relevant information to Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi to get his passports cancelled and later get him deported to his own country, but nothing was done till Jan 15 when Rana-led team had itself done everything. From the Abu Dhabi CID, it was found that Tauqir was apprehended in the first week of Jan 2013 because his name was reflected in the wanted list of Interpol but because of unavailability of papers he was allowed to go.
Rana and his team later traced Tauqir through their own local contacts and found that the man was hiding in Ajman and that he got the resident visa for three years from the owner of one Al-Noor Bakery, Nasir Mazrohi. The team met Nasir Mazrohi and interviewed him and asked as to the whereabouts of Tauqir Sadiq.
Mazrohi shared with the team the contact details of one Sajid Ahmad, who was already working with him and felicitated Tauqir Sadiq for visa and residence in Ajman. Tauqir Sadiq, who is alleged to have stolen Rs82 billion and in whose accounts Rs3 billion were found to have been transferred to 41 different accounts of his friends and acquaintances within Pakistan, got the resident visa for three years as a cashier of an ordinary bakery-cum-tandoor of Ajman. Sajid was immediately approached by the team but he tried to deceive them by giving a wrong tip about Tauqir’s residence. The first raid, therefore, failed. Sajid was grilled by the local CID and Pakistani team and eventually contacted Tauqir Sadiq on his mobile 009715396468 and asked him to come to the bakery/tandoor.
Sadiq promised but did not turn up and later switched off his mobile. The Pakistani team of detectives went back to Abu Dhabi. The next day they had a session with their local contacts through which they succeeded to have a meeting with the Interpol’s local chief Col Faisal al-Qazi. Rana shared all the details with him and got the promise that within two days Tauqir Sadiq would be arrested.
Side by side, Rana-led Pakistani detectives worked closely with the local CID and got all the details about Tauqir’s mobile use. On the basis of the same information, a raid was conducted on a residence of Tauqir Sadiq but he was not found there. His close contacts were probed and it was found that Tauqir had more than three residences, all of which were raided but he was not found anywhere.
Later, Tauqir switched off his mobile permanently. Sensing that the media reports about his arrest efforts were actually helping him to change his hideouts, the NAB officer Waqas Khan returned to Pakistan as part of the strategy on Jan 24 to tell the media that the fugitive had not been found and that the team had returned empty-handed.
This strategy worked as Tauqir Sadiq switched on his mobile and started contacting his lawyers and other contacts, including Sajid Ahmad. The local Interpol head was again approached on Jan 25 following which Sajid Ahmad was immediately arrested. Later, on Jan 28, several raids were conducted at different places and finally Tauqir Sadiq was arrested from Ajman. He was residing in the flat of an Iraqi national. On Jan 29, his arrest was formally announced.
No comments:
Post a Comment