Court orders two-day judicial remand for Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh, 8 others

Investigators say data seized from the company is being decoded and findings would be available soon

KARACHI: A district sessions court in Karachi on Monday sent Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh and eight others on a two-day judicial remand in the fake degrees case. 

During the hearing, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) investigators contended before the court that 'concrete' evidence was discovered against the accused during their investigation.

Read: Fake degree empire collapses, Axact CEO nailed

"Abdul Rauf, the owner of a printing press, who the Axact management hired to publish fake degrees has been traced and been included in the witnesses list," an investigation officer told the court.

The officer upheld that the statements of three witnesses will be recorded during the next hearing. Further, the FIA team also submitted the medical treatment report of the accused as the judge had asked for it during the previous hearing.

The investigators submitted that the computers and data seized from the company were being decoded and the findings would be available soon.

Read: Axact CEO, four others sent on physical remand till June 7

Shaikh along with six directors of the company were taken into custody on May 27 after investigators found hundreds of thousands of forged degrees and students ID cards from a secret office of the company in Karachi.

Earlier, the Axact CEO Shoaib Shaikh along with Viqas Atiq and three others were handed a physical remand till June 7.

The FIA is investigating the software company after a NYT report accused the Karachi-based firm of not only issuing fake diplomas and degrees from a host of online universities but also running a bogus, parallel accreditation system, which in some instances even carried verifications from the US State Department with forged signatures of John Kerry.