KARACHI, March 9: The Federal Investigation Agency on Friday got another extension in the physical remand of Khurram Rasool, a former media coordinator of Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani, in a fraud case till March 12.

He was booked for making a business deal with complainant Abdul Hameed to send a shipment and allegedly failing to fulfil his obligation after receiving Rs85 million.

On Feb 29, the court handed the suspect over to FIA on physical remand and on March 5 the magistrate granted a four-day extension.

The FIA personnel produced the suspect before the court of a judicial magistrate (south) on Friday and the investigation officer again sought extension in the physical remand, saying that the investigation was still incomplete.

Judicial Magistrate Inayatullah Bhutto granted another three-day extension and directed the IO to produce the suspect in court on the next hearing along with a progress report of the investigation.

The court also directed the SHO of the city courts to provide security to the suspect on the premises of the city courts after the suspect raised some concerns.

According to a report placed before the court under Section 167 of the criminal procedure code, the suspect was engaged in an export and import business with the complainant and after receiving an amount of Rs85 million, the former was required to send a shipment from Ghana. The suspect handed over the bills of lading to the complainant, but the complainant was informed that the same was forged when he took it to the shipping line, it added.

The suspect issued multiple cheques when the complainant made a demand for reimbursement of the money, but all of them bounced because of insufficient money in the account, it concluded.

A case (FIR No.4/12) was registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker merchant or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 489-F (dishonestly issuing a cheque for repayment of loan etc) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the FIA corporate crime circle Karachi.

The FIA took the custody of the suspect on Feb 27 from a prison in Rawalpindi where he was confined in connection with some other cases.