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Aroob Jatoi, the wife of Saadur Rehman, the YouTuber popularly known as Ducky Bhai, appeared before the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Wednesday after obtaining pre-arrest bail in a case involving her husband’s alleged promotion of online gambling applications on his social media.

Additional Sessions Judge Zafaryab has restrained the authorities from arresting her till August 30 after she petitioned the court for pre-arrest bail. The bail has been granted against surety bonds of Rs50,000.

Her lawyer, advocate Ch Irfan Faiz Kalaar, told the court that she was willing to join the investigation but feared being arrested.

The NCCIA, which currently has custody of her husband, included Jatoi in the investigation and summoned her to its office in Lahore’s Gulberg-II on August 20 at 1pm to record her defence in the case.

Her lawyer told Images that she was summoned on August 19 and claimed that she was illegally detained for two hours, during which time they also took her phone.

He said on Wednesday, the agency recorded Jatoi’s statement and questioned her for an hour and a half.

The NCCIA is investigating Ducky Bhai for illegally promoting online betting and gambling apps on his YouTube account. He was arrested on August 17 at the Lahore Airport. A court remanded him into the agency’s custody till August 23.

The case against him was registered by the state through the NCCIA Lahore at midnight on August 17 under sections 13 (Electronic Forgery), 14 (Electronic Fraud), 25 (Spamming) and 26 (Spoofing) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 as well as sections 294 B (Offering prize in connection with trade) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducting delivery of property) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

It is related to an inquiry dated June 13 and registered on the “receipt of information from reliable source(s)” that some YouTubers and social media influencers were promoting gambling and betting applications to the general public via their social media accounts for their own monetary benefits.

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

Jatoi married the YouTuber in 2022 in an engagement plus nikkah ceremony attended by several other YouTubers. In 2024, the couple were detained by the police in Lahore for displaying weapons on social media.