ISLAMABAD, May 10: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has again obtained physical remand of Swiss visa official Ashir Francis, the main character in a visa scam, for further investigation, a senior FIA official told Dawn on Wednesday.

The accused has been in judicial custody in Adiyala jail but the FIA pleaded before a local court that it wanted to further interrogate the accused.

The official said that the court had accepted the plea and remanded the accused to FIA custody.

He said new cases were being instituted against the accused and for every case he would be remanded to FIA custody for interrogation.

A new case has been registered against Francis by the PS Secretariat two days ago for deceiving government official Ajmal Khan on the pretext of giving him a Swiss visa.

Besides Francis, who served as assistant visa officer in the Swiss embassy in Islamabad, four travel agents have also been held by the FIA on charges of human smuggling and tampering with passports of visa-seekers.

The official said the agency had come to know the whereabouts of another accused, Maj (retd) Ajmal, who had escaped to the United Kingdom.

“We have requested the UK authorities to expedite the case being proceeded by Interpol so that the accused could be repatriated to Pakistan as soon as possible,” the official added.