LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Friday extended physical remand of six officers of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) for three more days in a case of alleged misuse of authority and extortion from a YouTuber while in custody.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) anti-corruption wing produced six officers, including NCCIA Additional Director Sarfraz Chaudhry, before the court on expiry of their previous remand. Other arrested officials include Deputy Director (acting in-charge) Muhammad Zawar Ahmad, assistant directors Shoaib Riaz and Mujtaba Zafar, and sub-inspectors Ali Raza and Yasir Ramzan.

The investigating officer (IO) submitted an initial investigation report before the court, saying more than Rs25m had been recovered from the suspects.

According to the report, Rs7m were recovered from Raza, Rs900,000 from Zawar, Rs1.9m from Yasir and Rs3.6m from Riaz. The report further revealed that Rs12.54m was recovered from Sarfraz Chaudhry.

The IO told the court that an inquiry into the assets of the suspects had also been launched. He asked the court to extend the physical remand of the suspects for 12 days.

The defence lawyers, Rana Maroof, Farooq Bajwa and Muneer Bhatti, opposed the FIA’s request for further remand.

Advocate Bhatti, the counsel of Assistant Director Shoaib, argued that his client allegedly transferred YouTuber Saadur Rehman alias Ducky Bhai’s 0.3004 US dollars to his Binance account but there was not a single piece of evidence to support the allegation. He said it was alleged the suspect officers used to take monthly payments from call centers — but there was no evidence of that either. He stated that the case had been sensationalised on social media, which undermined fair trial standards.

The counsel argued that the suspects were accused of extending undue favour to the YouTuber in the investigation but the prosecution failed to establish this charge as well. He asked the court to discharge the suspects in the case.

After hearing the arguments, Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo extended the physical remand of the NCCIA officers for three more days and directed the IO to produce them again on Nov 3.

The other day, the magistrate had also granted a three-day physical remand of NCCIA Deputy Director Muhammad Usman in the same case.

The FIA had registered the FIR on the complaint of Aroob Jatoi, the wife of YouTuber Saadur Rehman (Ducky Bhai), who was arrested in a case related to promoting gambling apps on social media.

The YouTuber has approached the Lahore High Court for post-arrest bail after denial of the relief by a magistrate and a sessions court.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2025