Man gets five years in jail for defaming ex-wife on internet

A sessions court on Thursday sentenced a man to five years in jail after he was found guilty of harassing his former wife by spreading her indecent pictures on the internet.

Arshad Hadi was also slapped with a fine of Rs3 million, failing to pay which would result in an additional six months in prison. He was arrested from the courtroom after the pronouncement of the verdict.

According to the prosecution, the woman had filed for divorce from the accused, but he threatened her with spreading her indecent pictures and videos on the internet if she did not withdraw her application.

During the trial, she told the court that she had married Hadi in Karachi in 2015, and that it was their second marriage, as she was a divorcee and he was a married man. She said she later went to live with him in Dubai, where he subjected her to physical abuse.

She added that when she filed for divorce and moved back to Karachi, the accused followed her back and took her to his residence, where he took pictures and recorded videos of her that were obscene.

She said the accused then threatened her that if she did not withdraw from her divorce plea, he would spread those pictures on the internet. She asserted that he did so after the court decision came in her favour. The accused denied the charges and opted to contest.

The prosecution presented the evidence collected from the laptop, tablet and smartphone, proving that the said pictures and videos were sent to the father and sister of the woman by the accused as well as spread on Facebook using a fake account.

While pronouncing the verdict, the judge observed that the prosecution had successfully established its case against the accused, and lauded the forensic investigation conducted by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency.

Hadi was given five years for committing an offence under Section 21 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, as many years for an offence under Section 419 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and two years for an offence under Section 500 of the PPC. All the sentences will run concurrently.