Lahore — A district court has granted a three-day extension of physical remand for six officers of the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency (NCCIA) in connection with a high-profile bribery and gambling app promotion investigation. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had requested a 14-day remand, but the court approved a shorter extension after defence lawyers argued that additional custody was unnecessary.
The six NCCIA officials are accused of accepting a Rs 9 million bribe from the family of YouTuber Saad Ur Rehman, popularly known as Ducky Bhai, in exchange for granting undue relief to him and his wife. Two sub-inspectors and a civilian frontman have also been implicated in the case, widening the scope of the investigation into corruption within the agency.
According to FIA reports submitted to the court, Rs 42.55 million in total has been recovered from the arrested individuals. The breakdown of recovered funds includes Rs 7 million from Sub-Inspector Ali Raza, Rs 0.9 million from Deputy Director Zawar Ahmed, Rs 1.9 million from Yasir Gujjar, Rs 3.648 million from Assistant Director Shoaib Riaz, and Rs 12.548 million from Additional Director Sarfraz Chaudhry.
The FIA has initiated asset-verification proceedings to identify properties and holdings that exceed the accused officers’ known sources of income. Investigators are also tracing money trails connected to related call centres suspected of facilitating illegal financial activities. The accused officers are scheduled to appear before the court again on November 3, following the latest remand extension.
