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The Lahore High Court (LHC) issued on Monday notices to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on a petition filed by YouTuber Saadur Rehman, popularly known as Ducky Bhai, seeking bail in a case pertaining to the promotion of illegal gambling applications on his YouTube channel.

Justice Farooq Haider heard the petition that argued that Rehman had not been issued any notices to appear for an inquiry into the promotion of illegal applications by influencers online prior to his arrest by NCCIA. It argued that he was leaving the country for an event when he was arrested at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport on August 17.

The case against the YouTuber was registered by the state through the NCCIA Lahore 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.

The FIR claimed that the public invested their hard-earned money in these applications and suffered financial losses. It accused Rehman of promoting different gambling and betting applications, including 1xBet, Bet 365, B9 Game and Binomo — for which he is charged with acting as country manager — through his YouTube channel.

The petition argued that though Rehman was remanded into the agency’s custody for 22 days after his arrest and his subsequent bail pleas rejected, two other people arrested at the same time as him, Subhan Sharif and Asad Nadeem Mughal, had since been released. It requested the court to grant the bail request.

Justice Haider directed the NCCIA to submit its arguments in the case.

The YouTuber’s legal team filed the petition for his bail with the LHC on October 30 after similar petitions before a judicial magistrate and an additional sessions judge were dismissed on September 22 and October 2.