The Legal Magistrate of District South was withheld Armughan Qureshi on Tuesday to court addicts in an ongoing investigation of an illegal call center operation expressing dissatisfaction with the FIA’s failure to show progress despite repeated extensions of physical custody.
Armughan, who is also the most important accused in the high-profile Mustafa Amir murder case, was produced before the court after the end of his recent custody prison. FIA’s investigative officer (IO) sought further custody and stated that the defendants had revealed the identity of more than five alleged accomplice and revealed details of digital accounts and addresses, which required additional probing.
However, the Court questioned the need to extend physical custody after further and stated that the defendant had already been in the FIA weight for almost two months. “You haven’t done anything in four,” noted the magistrate, criticizing FIA’s slow investigation pace.
The court also asked if the defendant’s legal representation and whether he had been subjected to any abuse during detention. In response, Armughan said dismissively, “do whatever you want,” and then remained silent despite repeated questions from the judge. The judge noted that the defendant had proved cooperative in previous procedures, but now did not respond.
A female lawyer present in the courtroom raised an objection and called the defendant’s silence contempt to the court. The magistrate recognized the concern and added, “this is not a common matter,” and referred to the accused’s alleged involvement in several cases. The FIA claimed that access to the accused’s digital wallets and further recovery was still pending. However, the court gave up that the investigation had been allocated ample time for such purposes and rejected the request for further detention.
The Magistrate ordered Armughan to be sent to prison on the court in custody and ordered the FIA IO to submit the last Challan during the next hearing.
