Cyber Crime Bill puts a man behind the bars

The security services arrested a man for allegedly blackmailing a woman for money by creating a fake Facebook profile.

According to the officials at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the accused, Sheikh Tauqeer Ahmed, made a fake Facebook account of a woman. Posting explicit and revealing images of the woman, the accused went on and demanded PKR 200,000 as an extortion amount for taking the images down.

A FIR lodged by the affected, formally initiated the proceeding in the court of law by the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, citing Sheikh Tauqeer accused of blackmailing and spoofing under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill or the Cyber Crime Bill 2016.

The security officials found the accused and arrested him on November 9th, 2016. He was presented in the court on November 12, 2016 where a two day physical remand was provided to the FIA for further investigations. The extorted money has yet to be recovered, however, the password used has been recovered.

The recently enacted Cyber Crime Bill or to be more particular the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, was approved by the National Assembly few months ago. Despite being deemed controversial, it was adopted by the Senate and was finally approved by the Senate. The first offender of the Cyber Crime Bill was arrested in KPK in August this year.

Source — ETribune