LAHORE: A duty judicial magistrate at Model Town Courts on Saturday allowed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to have physical custody of Ichhra jeweller Wasim Akhtar for two days in a case of alleged swindling of 20kg of gold.

A joint investigation team (JIT) presented the suspect before the magistrate and sought his physical remand.

A JIT member told the court that only two tolas of gold had been recovered from the suspect so far.

He said the custody of the suspect was required to be handed over to the FIA for further investigation.

The magistrate granted physical remand of the suspect to the FIA till Feb 16.

The fraud surfaced in the second week of December last when several jewellers of Latif Centre came to know that Waseem had disappeared with 20kg of gold worth over Rs1 billion they had “invested” with him for decades.

The police had arrested the absconding jeweller from Islamabad during the last week of January.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2026