KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) the physical remand of two men who were arrested for allegedly defrauding US insurance companies by using the credentials of American nationals obtained from the dark web.

According to the NCCIA, acting on a tip-off on July 14, they raided an “illegal call centre” operating in Gulistan-i-Johar and apprehended Haider Umrani and Ayyan Najeeb. They also seized digital equipment from the suspects. The NCCIA claimed that the suspects were involved in “illegal financial fraud activities.”

They registered a case against them under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 13 (electronic forgery), 14 (electronic fraud), 16 (unauthorised use of identity information) and 26 (spoofing) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).

Later, after completing their physical custody, they were sent to prison. However, the NCCIA challenged the impugned order before the district and sessions judge (East), who allowed the application. On Monday, the investigating officer produced the duo before Judicial Magistrate (East) Gulraiz Memon and sought their physical custody as the investigation was still ongoing.

The IO informed the court that, during the period of the suspects’ physical custody, they were interrogated and allegedly disclosed that they had been operating a call centre in active connivance with their absconding accomplices — Zeeshan, Umair, Talha, Sohaib, and Idrees — to fraudulently obtain the credentials of US nationals from the dark web.

The IO further stated that these credentials were allegedly used to fraudulently claim medical insurance payments on behalf of US nationals. After receiving the payouts in the accounts of multiple shell limited liability companies registered in different US states, the funds were allegedly transferred to Pakistan through the hawala/hundi channel with the help of co-accused Sohaib and Idrees Memon.

He informed the court that every possible effort had been made to trace and apprehend the suspects’ accomplices, but no success had been achieved so far as the suspects were not cooperating with the agency and had concealed the whereabouts of their accomplices.

The IO requested the court to grant further physical custody of the suspects, stating that he needed to recover digital devices, apprehend their accomplices, and trace the merchant accounts and payment channels allegedly used for unauthorised transactions.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2026