9 NCCIA officials booked for ‘extorting money’ from Ducky Bhai’s family
LAHORE: A Lahore court approved on Tuesday the Federal Investigation Agency’s request, granting it a three-day physical remand of six National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) officials in a case registered against them for allegedly misusing their authority, extorting money and taking bribes.
The first information report (FIR) of the case has been registered with the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle Lahore on the complaint of Aroob Jatoi, the wife of YouTuber Saadur Rehman alias Ducky Bhai, who has been arrested in a case pertaining to promoting gambling apps on social media.
The FIR was registered a total of nine individuals, including eight NCCIA officials, at 7:35pm on Monday. Among them, the six remanded in the FIA custody were said to be missing for several days before the FIA announced their arrest yesterday.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of another official nominated in the case — Muhammad Usman, the NCCIA deputy director of operations in Islamabad — have also been unknown for several days.
Lahore NCCIA’s Additional Director Sarfraz Chaudhry, Lahore NCCIA Deputy Director (acting in-charge) Zawar Ahmad, Lahore NCCIA Sub-Inspector Ali Raza, Lahore NCCIA Assistant Director Shoaib Riaz, Lahore NCCIA Sub-Inspector Yasir Ramzan and Lahore NCCIA Assistant Director Mujtaba Zafar are the six officials about whom it emerged yesterday that they had been arrested by the FIA.
They were presented before a district court in Lahore today.
The officials were brought to the court in handcuffs.
At the hearing, the FIA sought their physical remand from Judicial Magistrate Naeem Wattoo for further investigation.
“The suspects have to be interrogated,” the FIA’s lawyer contended.
“Till now, what have you found during the probe, on the basis of which you arrested the officials?” Justice Wattoo enquired.
The FIA’s lawyer replied that the probe was still under way.
For his part, the officials’ lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq, said details should be shared about the number of FIRs registered against the suspects.
At that, the FIA informed the court that the officials were nominated in just one FIR.
Following that, Ashfaq contended as per NCCIA rules, any action against an 18-grade officer was to be initiated after the director general’s permission. “Sarfraz is an officer, and permission has not been sought from the NCCIA for action against him.”
He further argued that when Aroob Jatoi had “given a bribe”, why did the FIA not register a case against him. On the other hand, a case against the NCCIA officials was registered within 20 minutes, he said.
According to the FIA’s application submitted in the court, a copy of which was seen by Dawn.com, the officials were arrested on October 27. Monitoring Desk
