LAHORE: A judicial magistrate has denied post-arrest bail to YouTuber Saadur Rehman alias Ducky Bhai in a case of promoting gambling apps on social media, registered by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA).

Counsel for the suspect argued that a false and frivolous case had been registered against his client.

He said there was no evidence that any minor or other aggrieved person suffered a loss due to the petitioner.

The counsel stated that the so-called gambling app, “Binomo”, was not banned at the time of the alleged promotion by the petitioner.

He said there was also no evidence that the seized amount was transferred to the petitioner’s account for the promotion of the said application.

NCCIA Prosecutor Zaina Zaheer opposed the bail, saying the suspect was involved in promoting gambling applications and his act created influenced a large number of people, especially minors.

She said that two mobile phones and a laptop were recovered from the suspect. She added that technical reports showed that all relevant data existed in the suspect’s devices, which proved that he was involved in promotion of illegal gambling applications and earning money. The prosecutor pointed out that an amount of $326,420 was seized from the account of the suspect.

In his order, Magistrate Naeem Wattoo noted that the suspect had not even denied promotion of illegal gambling applications. He said a huge amount of US dollars was recovered with an allegation that it was received by the suspect for the promotion of the gambling application.

The magistrate observed that such social media influencers should be very careful because their mistakes and wrong advice had an extraordinary impact on society.

“It looks at this stage that the petitioner’s act is affecting norms of society on a very large scale. Any such wrong act cannot be ignored, and it cannot be taken casually,” the magistrate maintained, dismissing the bail petition.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2025