Court dismisses bail petitions of two hackers

PESHAWAR: A local court on Friday dismissed bail petitions of two persons who were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the charges of hacking emails and Facebook accounts of girls and uploading objectionable materials on their accounts to blackmail them.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Azhar Khan refused release of the accused identified as Mohammad Ali and Mohammad Sohail after hearing arguments from both the sides.
As per the investigation of the FIA Cyber Wing, the accused hacked about 800 emails and Facebook accounts of girls and women belonging to rich and respectable families to blackmail them.
The state lawyer and an official of the FIA informed the court that the accused had received huge money from the women and blackmailed them after hacking their emails and Facebook accounts in the provincial capital.
They said the FIA launched a thorough investigation after receiving complaints fromPir Hashim, a resident of Hayatabad. They said the FIA team raided the house of Mohammad Ali and recovered the data stored on his computer. He said the accused had been involved in this crime since 2011.
The FIA official said the second accused Mohammad Sohail was arrested on the basis of the information divulged by Mohammad Ali.
Some weeks ago, the Peshawar High Court dismissed the bail petition of a man arrested by the FIA on the charge of hacking the Facebook account of a married woman and uploading objectionable material on it.
Justice Roohul Amin Khan of a single member bench during hearing had observed that suspect Rizwanul Haq, a resident of Bhara Kahu, Islamabad, didn’t deserve to be freed on bail as he was involved in a heinous crime.
State lawyer FM Sabir and inspector Adnan Khan had appeared for the FIA and said the suspect had ruined the life of a married woman hailing from Nowshera as his unlawful and unethical acts led to her divorce.
They said the suspect had hacked the Facebook account of the woman, who was married to a man in Islamabad and lived a happy life.
He said the suspect uploaded objectionable contents on her Facebook account and shared the material with her husband and mother-in-law.
The lawyer said the woman was divorced by her husband due to the illegal and unethical acts of the accused, who continued to play with the lives of other women.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Fareed Khan Alizai had also dismissed the bail petition of a man arrested on the charge of creating a fake Facebook account of a woman and uploading objectionable contents on it.
Suspect Zahid Khan, a resident of Hakimabad area in Nowshera, was arrested few days ago after a complaint was lodged with the Cyber Crimes Wing of FIA by a resident of the Swabi district.
The complainant alleged that the suspect had created a fake Facebook account of his (complainant’s) sister. Zahid Yousaf and Hassan Ali, lawyers for the complainant, had stated that the suspect was charged under the Electronic Transaction Act and therefore, he was not entitled to bail under the law.
The Pakistan Electronic Crimes Ordinance 2007 expired in 2009. After a gap of five years, the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication prepared a draft bill, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2014, in February 2014.
After a year of preparing the draft that evolved into The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 (PECB 2015), it was tabled in the National Assembly of Pakistan on January 16, 2015.
The bill was referred to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology the same day and the committee prepared its report on the bill on April 16, 2015.