Copyright brecorder
LAHORE: A city court on Friday extended the physical remand of six officers of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) till November 03 in a case of alleged misuse of authority and extortion from a YouTuber Saadur Rehman alias Ducky Bhai while in custody. The officials include, NCCIA Additional Director Sarfraz Chaudhry, Deputy Director (acting in-charge) Muhammad Zawar Ahmad, Assistant Directors Shoaib Riaz and Mujtaba Zafar, and Sub-Inspectors Ali Raza and Yasir Ramzan. Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) anti-corruption wing produced the officers before the court and the Investigating Officer (IO) submitted an initial investigation report. According to the report, rupees 12.548 million were recovered from Sarfraz Chaudhry, 7 million from Raza, 1.9 million from Yasir, 3.648 million from Riaz and rupees 900,000 from Zawar, The IO told the court that an inquiry into the assets of the suspects had also been launched and asked the court for further 12-days remand of the suspects. The defence counsel; however, opposed the FIA’s request for further remand. The counsel of Assistant Director Shoaib, argued that his client allegedly transferred Youtuber Ducky Bhai’s 0.3004 US dollars to his Binance account, but there was not a single piece of evidence to support the allegation. He said it was alleged the suspect officers used to take monthly payments from call centers but there was no evidence of that either. The counsel argued that the suspects were also accused of extending undue favour to the Youtuber in the investigation, but the prosecution failed to establish this charge, as well. He; therefore, asked the court to discharge the suspects in the case. The court after hearing the arguments extended the physical remand of the NCCIA officers for three more days. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
