ISLAMABAD - The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has busted a racket of online fraudsters who were allegedly using the name of Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal to mint money from the public in return for ‘providing jobs’ in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Project (CPEC) related projects.

The suspects were impersonating themselves as Ahsan Iqbal to mint money from the gullible clients, an official of the agency said.

The official said that the FIA’s cyber crime wing had registered an FIR against the suspects on the private complaint of a university professor, who was deprived of huge money, and two of them have been arrested.

The university professor in his complaint had said that some online fraudsters cheated him to transfer a huge amount of money into their accounts in return for giving a job in a CPEC related project. The suspected impersonators used the name of Ahsan Iqbal, who was earlier the planning minister in the cabinet of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the official said. But the professor later found that he had been cheated.

The FIA investigation revealed that the suspects used to acquire the money fraudulently in the name of 'processing fee' through their bank accounts.

The FIA has arrested the two suspects identified as Ali Ahmad Bhatti and Sohail Baig, and some amount of the defrauded money has been recovered from them.

The extorted money had been transferred into the accounts of Baig. The suspects have disclosed the names of other members of the racket and the agency was searching for them, the FIA official said.