Man jailed for 22 months for sharing indecent photos of teenage girl online

A court sentenced a man to 22-month imprisonment for blackmailing and forcing a teenage student into a friendship by sharing her indecent pictures on social media.

Judicial Magistrate (East) Mukesh Kumar Talreja found Abdul Khalique guilty of collecting the girl’s obscene pictures, blackmailing her to force her into friendship and demanding a bribe of Rs200,000 in Gulistan-e-Jauhar in March.

He handed down 13-month imprisonment to the convict and imposed a fine of Rs20,000 for committing the offence of internet spamming as defined under Section 22(1)(b)(c) and (d) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

The magistrate awarded 19-month imprisonment to the man and imposed a fine of Rs20,000 for the offence of ‘legal recognition of offence committed in relation to information system’ punishable under Section 24 of the Peca 2016.

The convict was further told to pay Rs100,000 in compensation to the victim, and on default of payment and compensation, he would further undergo two- month imprisonment. During the course of the trial, the girl testified that she was a grade-IX student at a private coaching centre in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, where she met Ahsan Khaliq. A friend had introduced her to him, she added.

She stated that she used to share her personal pictures and talk with him through video calls. One day during a video call, the accused told her to remove her clothes, which she inadvertently did. However, the perpetrator intentionally recorded images and videos.

Cyber Crime Cell officials arrested Khalique from his home and recovered the cell phone and SIM card from which sexually explicit and nude images of the complainant were recovered.

A forensic analysis found that the same pictures of the victim were also shared on social media accounts, including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, which the accused had created with a fake identity.

The Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Karachi had lodged an FIR under sections 20 (malicious code), 21 (cyber stalking), 22 (spamming) and 24 (Legal recognition of offences committed in relation to information system) of the Peca, 2016.