LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) a four-day physical remand for Sohrab Barkat, an Islamabad-based digital media journalist, in a case of spreading misinformation about state institutions.
An NCCIA team produced the journalist before the district court magistrate and sought his physical remand for 30 days. The investigating officer said physical custody of the suspect was required to recover the social media accounts and complete the investigation.
A lawyer for the suspect opposed the request for remand, saying the journalist was illegally disembarked and arrested at Islamabad airport while heading abroad to attend a United Nations conference.
He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told an Islamabad court that there was no case registered against the journalist. But later he was booked in the cyber crime case.
The lawyer argued that there was a 24-hour delay in the suspect’s appearance in court. He said the suspect had not committed any crime. He noted that the alleged derogatory comments were made by PTI activist Sanam Javed, who was a guest on a program hosted by the journalist for a digital media channel.
In his order, Magistrate Naeem Wattoo noted that the record shows that the suspect is named in the FIR registered on August 5 and an investigation has been decided against him.
He said the suspect was even declared a proclaimed felon after obtaining arrest warrants from the court.
“Therefore, it cannot be said that this case has been registered to justify his detention for alleged discharge,” the magistrate stated in his order, approving the journalist’s physical preventive detention for four days.
The magistrate ordered the NCCIA to present the suspect again on December 2.
Published in Dawn, November 29, 2025
