FIA recovers over Rs42.5m from NCCIA officers arrested in Ducky Bhai bribery case

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has recovered Rs42.54 million from six officers of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) accused of taking bribes from YouTuber Saad ur Rehman, popularly known as Ducky Bhai.

The officers, whose three-day physical remand ended on Thursday, were presented before a district court in Lahore. They were brought to court in handcuffs as Judicial Magistrate heard the case. Defence counsels Rana Maroof Advocate and Farooq Bajwa Advocate represented the accused.

During the hearing, Advocate Munir Bhatti argued that Assistant Director Shoaib Riaz allegedly transferred $342,000 belonging to Ducky Bhai into his Binance account, but no evidence of any such transaction had been provided. He added that the case had been exaggerated on social media, which could affect a fair trial.

Bhatti further claimed that authorities had accused the suspects of receiving monthly payments from call centres without substantiating the allegation. “It was said that all this was done to give relief to Ducky Bhai — we ask, where is that relief now?” he questioned.

The FIA informed the court that Rs42.54 million in bribe money had been recovered from the accused. According to the agency’s investigation report, Rs7 million were recovered from Ali Raza, Rs0.9 million from Zawar, Rs1.9 million from Yasir Gujar, Rs3.648 million from Assistant Director Shoaib Riaz, and Rs12.548 million from Additional Director Chaudhry Sarfraz.

The FIA also stated that an inquiry into assets beyond known income had been initiated against the officers. The investigating officer told the court that the suspects were trained officials, making interrogation challenging. “We are collecting details of the cases they were handling and examining their assets,” he said.