Petition to quash FIR in cybercrime case dismissed

NOWSHERA: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has dismissed a petition to quash a first information report in a cybercrime case.

The bench was headed by PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth. The other member of the bench was Justice Naeem Anwar. The petition was filed by Badsha Khan against the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and a senior journalist Mushtaq Ahmad Paracha. Malik Farooq Advocate appeared for the petitioner while Shabbir Hussain Gigyani was the counsel for Mushtaq Ahmad Paracha. Gigyani submitted to the bench that Mushtaq Ahmad Paracha had filed a complaint with the Cybercrime Wing of the FIA in 2015.

He had accused three persons - Raheem Khan Raheem, Badsha Khan and Samar Gul Shah - of putting material through three posts on Facebook which, he said, tried to defame him and his family. An FIR was registered against the three. Gigyani in his arguments said Additional District and Sessions Judge Nowshera, Zeba Rasheed had in 2017 issued a decree against the three accused asking each one of them to pay Rs1million defamation amount to the senior journalist.

The counsel for Mushtaq Ahmad Paracha said the FIA intentionally removed the names of the two accused from the FIR. The investigation was re-launched in 2018 under the new FIA laws on the request of Mushtaq Paracha and a case was lodged against the three in the year 2019. The alleged defamation posts record was collected.