A first information report (FIR) was registered against four policemen, including two SHOs, for leaking sensitive information about the mastermind of the gold scam, Waseem Akhtar, in Lahore, reported the 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
According to details, all four cops were involved in the investigation of the gold scam. The sections on using authority beyond means were included in the first information report.
The four policemen were later identified as Akhlaq, Umar Hayat, Mohsin Raza, and Javed.
As this is a high-profile case, the investigation was affected by the leakage of sensitive information.
Earlier, on January 23, 2026, in a major breakthrough in the Rs1 billion gold fraud case of Ichhra Bazaar, the police reportedly arrested the suspect, a jeweller from Islamabad, and shifted him to an undisclosed location.
A police team was staying in Islamabad for the last 10 days or so when they got a tip-off that the suspect, Waseem Akthar, was hiding somewhere in the federal capital.
He was nominated in multiple FIRs lodged by his fellow jewellers, besides his own stepmother.
The major fraud case surfaced in the second week of December 2025, when several jewellers of Madina Jewellers Market, Ichhra, after they came to know that Waseem had disappeared suddenly with 20kg of gold worth over Rs1 billion, which they had invested with him for decades.
The lockers of the suspect’s shop, where they had deposited the gold ornaments were found unlocked at the time when the affected jewellers visited the premises.
An official, privy to the development, said the suspect kept on changing his location and the police finally managed to arrest him and his wife.
The official source claimed that the Lahore Police wanted to do the interrogation in their own style to ensure the maximum recovery of the gold he had made off with.
For this purpose, the police high-ups issued some instructions to keep the arrest secret, the source said. But the officers’ plan was spoiled when Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on a social media platform claimed the suspect had been arrested.
Reporter; Ibrahim Qureshi