YouTuber 'Ducky Bhai' caught at Lahore airport for promoting gambling.

YouTuber Saad-ur-Rehman, popularly known as Ducky Bhai, was arrested from Lahore airport on Sunday morning. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has registered a case against him for promoting online gambling and betting applications.

He was also produced before a judicial magistrate on Sunday afternoon. The court granted his two-day remand to the NCCIA. The agency has been directed to appear before the court again on Tuesday, August 19, with an investigation report.

A case was registered by the state through the NCCIA Lahore on the midnight of August 17 under sections 13 (electronic forgery), 14 (electronic fraud), 25 (spamming) and 26 (forgery) of the Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, along with sections O 240 and 29 (delivery of property by deception and dishonestly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The case relates to an inquiry conducted on June 13 and was registered on “receipt of information from reliable source(s)” that some YouTubers and social media influencers were promoting gambling and betting applications among the general public through their social media accounts for their own financial gain.

The FIR claimed that the public invested their hard-earned money in these applications due to which they suffered financial losses. It accused Rehman of promoting various gambling and betting applications through his YouTube channel, including Binomo, 1xBet, Bet 365, B9 Game, etc.

Despite collecting millions of rupees, it said Binomo and other apps “committed fraud/scam” and did not pay any returns against the public’s investments, determining that it had cheated the public.

It also noted that the applications have not yet been registered in Pakistan. The FIR said that Rehman was summoned but “deliberately” did not join the inquiry proceedings. His name was also placed on the Temporary National Identity List.

On August 16, the agency received information from FIA Immigration at Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore that the accused had been detained for marking out through the IBMS system while trying to leave the country. He was arrested and his phone was seized, and initial investigation found evidence of chats with contacts related to Binomo promotions, as well as “misleading videos” of illicit payments from the app.

"It has also been revealed that the accused is working as a country manager assigned by the Binomo administration, without any government agency, FBR or State Bank of Pakistan."