Man who posed as aviation minister to defraud Olympian Talha Talib's father held

GUJRANWALA: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Monday arrested a suspect who defrauded the father of Olympian Talha Talib after receiving over Rs300,000 from him while posing as aviation minister, ARY NEWS reported.

According to the FIA, the suspect identified as Shahzad Aziz was arrested from Lahore after the victims filed a complaint with the Prime Minister’s portal.

Olympian Talha Talib was deprived of his Rs 300,000 prize money by an imposter who introduced himself as the personal assistant (PA) of the aviation minister after promising to gift a vehicle over his success in the Tokyo Olympics.

The father of the Olympian submitted a complaint with the Prime Minister Complaint Cell over two weeks back as he narrated the entire episode of fraud committed with them.

Divulging the details, he said that a man who introduced himself as a personal assistant to aviation minister called him on August 16 and conveyed that the minister wanted to gift a vehicle to Talha Talib over his success in the Olympics.

“The imposter then telephoned on August 20 and asked us to receive the vehicle after submitting registration and freight charges in the bank,” he said adding that they submitted the amount in the bank.

The father said that when they reached Sambrial dry port to receive the vehicle, the imposter switched off his phone, leaving behind no trace of him. “The money that we gave to the imposter was received by Talha Talib as prize money for his success in Olympics,” he said.