LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) a four-day physical remand of Sohrab Barkat, an Islamabad-based digital media journalist, in a case of spreading misinformation about state institutions.

A team of NCCIA produced the journalist before the magistrate at district courts and sought his physical remand for 30 days. The investigating officer said physical custody of the suspect was required for the recovery of social media accounts and completion of investigation.

A counsel for the suspect opposed the remand request, saying the journalist was illegally offloaded and arrested from Islamabad airport when he was going abroad to attend a United Nations conference.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told a court in Islamabad that there was no case registered against the journalist. But later he was booked in the cybercrime case.

The counsel argued that there was a delay of 24 hours in the production of the suspect before the court. He said the suspect had not committed any offence. He pointed out that the alleged derogatory remarks were made by PTI activist Sanam Javed, who was a guest in a programme hosted by the journalist for a digital media channel.

In his order, Magistrate Naeem Wattoo noted that the record shows that the suspect is nominated in the FIR registered on Aug 5 and an inquiry has been decided against him.

He said the suspect was even declared a proclaimed offender after obtaining arrest warrants from the court.

“Therefore, it cannot be said that this case was registered for justifying his arrest on alleged offloading,” the magistrate held in his order, approving a four-day physical remand of the journalist.

The magistrate directed the NCCIA to produce the suspect again on Dec 2.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2025