[Breaking News] KIU Toppers Thugged
Man IMPERSONATES Federal Trade Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Cheats DC GILGIT, VC – KIU, students OF KIU and STEALS 520,000 rupees
Exclusive Story
PT Report
Gilgit, February 21: Toppers of the Karakuram International University (KIU)’s Biological Sciences and Education Department, Kavita Parveen and Asif Hussain, have lost around 520,000 rupees today in an astonishing act of highly organized thuggery. The Deputy Commissioner of Gilgit, vice-chancellor of Karakuram International University (KIU), and the students, all, have been cheated in one of the region’s most fascinating act of theft.
According to details, Kavita Parveen – topper of the KIU Education Department, received a phone call from the vice chancellor’s office (# 05811 – 960040) at around 11:18 in the morning. According to Kavita, Dr. Najma Najam, the vice-chancellor of Karakuram International University, asked her to attend a prize distribution ceremony being held in Islamabad. Kavita told her that she may not be able to attend the ceremony because of short notice period .
Later, two more calls were made to Kavita from the vice-chancellor’s office, at 11:28 and 11:36, and Dr. Najma Najam gave her a number (0321-7591250), asking Kavita to get in touch with Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Federal Trade Minister, for more details about the award ceremony.
Kavita contacted “Makhdoom Amin Fahim” on the number provided by Dr. Najma Najam and was told that President Zardari would be distributing the prizes. The man personifying Makhdoom Amin Fahim asked Kavita to connect him (the personifier) to someone elder in the family.
Kavita’s uncle, Saeedullah Baig, contacted the man impersonating Makhdoom Amin Fahim and was told that Kavita is getting a car as prize for topping in her department. He was asked to deposit a sum of rupees 260,000 in a specific bank account, as tax money. He was told to deposit the amount quickly to avail the car.
Kavita’s uncle developed some doubts and visited the Karakuram International University (KIU)’s Gilgit campus to confirm the news. He met the Deputy Registrar, Amjad, and inquired about the award ceremony. The deputy registrar, reportedly, told Kavita’s uncle that the toppers’ names had been sent for awards. Amjad also, reportedly, said that there was a possibility of cars being the prize for the toppers.
Getting the “affirmative” response from the deputy registrar, Saeedullah Baig contacted one of his relatives in Rawalpindi to deposit the said amount in an account provided by the man impersonating Makhdoom Amin Faheem.
Details of the account
Account Title: Neelum Imtiaz
Account Number: 032 PKR 01335953001,
Bank: Standard Chartered Bank, Chandni Chowk Branch, Rawalpindi, Deposit Slip Receipt # 274
The relative of Kavita in Rawalpindi contacted the man impersonating Makhdoom Amin Fahim and told him that the amount had been deposited in the given account. In response, he was asked to visit the Ministry Secretariat.
On arriving at the secretariat, the relative of Kavita came to know that the Federal Minister had been busy with some official work and there was no award ceremony of that sort taking place.
Sensing true nature of the case, the Ministry staff reportedly contacted the above mentioned Bank’s branch and inquired about the amount deposited. They were told that a woman named Neelum Imtiaz had withdrawn the deposited amount through cheque number 309974.
The relatives of Kavita immediately tried to contact Dr. Najma Najam but she could not be reached.
Later, the VC’s camp office in Islamabad called Kavita and told her that Dr. Najma had been busy with some official work and she had arrived in Islamabad from Gilgit on a flight. Kavita talked to Dr. Najma and told her about the entire story.
Kavita, later, also talked to Registrar of the University, Dr. Ahsan, and repeated the story. The registrar, reportedly, told Kavita to withdraw the amount quickly. However, it was too later.
At around 0730 in the evening, the vice-chancellor talked to Kavita again and asked her to lodge an FIR for the incident. She also said that the university will take appropriate legal actions to nab the culprits.
Pamir Times contacted Dr. Najma to get her opinion on the matter, however, she said that the KIU registrar will share the official statement.
KIU official responds, the plot thickens
On being contacted by Pamir Times, Dr. Ahsan, Registrar of the KIU, said that the vice-chancellor had been approached by Deputy Commissioner of Gilgit, Asad Zamin, informing her about the award ceremony. Dr. Ahsan also said that the details regarding students were provided by KIU to the Deputy Commissioner and the VC then left for Islamabad.
Dr. Ahsan said that KIU and the district administration would investigate the case and the culprits will be nabbed.
He also said that the students and their relatives should have been more cautious. He further said that when Kavita’s uncle approached the deputy registrar, he was discouraged from depositing the amount in the account given by the man impersonating Makhdoom Amin Faheem, without proper investigations and confirmation.
According to details a second student, Asif Hussain, also faced a similar situation after following the personifier. Details of Asif’s ordeal, however, could not be obtained immediately.
There are also unconfirmed reports that a third student named Sakina has also been cheated by what appears to be a gang of cheaters and robbers.
The way forward
The above story seems to be taken from a Hollywood thriller. It has all hallmarks of being a perfect case of organized thuggery, in which the deputy commissioner of Gilgit, the vice-chancellor of Karakuram International University, three toppers and their relatives were systematically dodged and robbed.
Pamir Times failed to reach Asad Zamin, DC Gilgit, for his comments about the issue. More twists in the tale are likely to appear after Asad Zamin gives his account of the story. Apparently, Asad Zamin has also been cheated and used by the personifier or other members of his gang.
A proper investigation of the case needs to be carried out by the KIU administration, the DC’s office, the police officials and other relevant agencies, to bring the cheaters to justice, while also recovering the robbed amount of the students.
Students and parents, as well as other officials, need to show more responsibility in the future to avoid such situations.
I think few months back, not long ago, exactly the same thing happened with the topper of Karachi University. Follow these links: http://www.interface.edu.pk/students/Aug-10/University-of-Karachi-fraud-case.asp and http://www.pakstudy.com/index.php?topic=27048.0 . It was in news and almost whoever is a regular news surfer may have known about it. Keeping in view that incident KIU should have probed the call from Mrakhdoom sab first before getting in touch with their students because the same thing had already happened at another university. Furthermore, the students & their family members themselves must have dealt with this offer carefully. It was their responsibility to investigate this offer through various sources. May be ministry of education or HEC would have information about any event in this regard. The main point to be skeptical about this event was the ministry & minister. Of course Makhdoom’s ministry does not have anything with the matters of education ministry. It is kind of spilled milk and crying over it is nothing but of no use. I can’t understand why our educated folks don’t use their common sense in such matters. Who should we blame for this? Makhdoom? Dr. Najma? The Students? Or our educational system which enables us to score top positions, become gold medalists or what so ever, but prevents us from using our minds.
Apparently, someone from greater Pakistan capitalized on the naive nature that marks the personality of most of inhabitants of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The victims could have asked themselves, what kind of a Prize asks you to Pay to get it? But, unfortunately, lack of guile in our people added with a great tendency of thinking wishfully paves the way to them being “owned” by those who have had to grow up in a very canny and deceptive world southward.
Socially engineered crimes of this sort have occurred previously too, hard to not ignore the Big Board financial fraud. Plus, there have been instances in past when teams from south have walked from door to door in Gilgit city, congratulating families of winning a “land plot” in Rawalpindi (or somewhere) in a lottery, all they would need to pay being just a few thousand rupees to sign the ownership papers right there and then (of course fake), people did pay thousands because the “wishful” prospect of owning a land worth “lac’s” for just a few thousands does blindfold their reasonable thinking.
For Kavita, and others, I think they need to lodge an FIR not against “Makhdoom”, but against Najma Najam, seriously, if they are actually looking for the case to be solved, that is what they have got to do. Their first point of contact (and hence, the one who caused this deception possible for Kavita and others) is the Vice Chancellor, she will only be apologetic unless you take her by ear. Lodge FIR Against her
A very interesting story: from the plot it seems internal kiu staff could be involved or were they made fool by the gang?
Think about it: GREED was the cause of this scam
Let the lady learn from her mistakes and not repeat it in future.This should be a lesson for all in GB province and Pakistan.
And by the way,similar scam took place at Karachi University in July 2010
http://www.interface.edu.pk/students/Aug-10/University-of-Karachi-fraud-case.asp
Cellphone fraudsters reach the heights
A similar case reported on PT on February 26, 2009
http://pamirtimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/26/cellphone-fraudsters-reach-the-heights/
It is really deplorable news. One would wonder how the responsible persons of KIU have shown such grave mistake. It also shows the caliber of the KIU management who even didn’t bothered to reconfirm the reality of the “Makhdoom Amin Fahim”. How can parents then trust the University’s various educational trips, when the so called management have shown such irresponsibility.
One of the other factors apart from the negligence of KIU authorities and improper guidance given to the Pupil is the liturgical attitude of University high officials. that was not a huge problem rather they can manage it in an explicit way without amalgamating the issue of the prize money. within the happening time of such henoic act, if a proper action had been taken, i am sure that amount would have been been regained and culprits too. Even the law should had actioned at the spot, which too proved to be helpful for the culprits to do their devious act with confidence. We condemn such kind of incidents……!
it is awkward to say that but real award should be given to Cheater who remarkably completed his task and made fool the three institutions .
*COMPLETELY SHOCKED*
i never knew such incidents happen in real life,
atleast i never knew GB can also report such a case!!
the university responsibles should sprear a team of quick and clever investigators cus i dnt think the police force can solve this case on its own!
It is not a new incident in GB, indeed it took place a couple of years back in different areas of the region when big-board named fraud team made their back strong by collecting millions of rupees from the poor inhabitants of the area, this case is comedy from one dimension and a real thriller from one side, how can u deposit 2,60,000 pkr on unknown acct for the sake of one car, if you had send it to me instead of him, i would have bought two NCP new model cars for you, this is a chain of fraud gangs operating around pakistan, the DC,VC and others could be involved, proper probe is needed to disclose the culprits behinf this brutal act.
The topper should have a common sense too. There have been so many fraud cases of this nature and I think that the topper(s) had closed their eyes in the rapture of their achievement and started believing everything possible and specially when the luck started knocking with the name of none other than Amin Faheem (the unlucky commerce minister who was supposed to be Prime Minster ……..)!!!!
It shocked me when listen this bad news, i didnt believe hw kavi motivated for this bcoz she was very careful like these things. so it is lesson for all youngsters and everyone, be careful in future.
Great effort done by PT to expose only one incident happened in KIU, this reflects the culture prevailing there.Now KIU is going to become a future Jamshoro were degrees will be distributed in future. Now to who will listen as it is going to become another PWD as the failed candidates were inducted as lecturer by the support of Chief Court Gilgit while the meritorious were not considered. Then how they will preach merit and knowledge when such corrupt practices will remain common in KIU.
We will request the CJ Pakistan to intervene and bring the culprits to justice .We are with the students who became victim of VC and DC.
strange realy it is very strange,the adminstration of kiu should take step,because they did not cheat one student they have cheated kiu.
VC has gone to Islamabad to get her portion of the thugged money