KARACHI: Production of accused in cyber crime ordered
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 15: A division bench of the Sindh High Court ordered the production of two teenaged boys arrested by the FIA for alleged involvement in a cyber crime on Sept 17.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, also restrained the agency from shifting Agha Junaid and Faisal Sajjad from Karachi. Junaid would remain admitted to the JPMC, where he was lodged by the FIA, and Faisal would not be transferred from the Central Jail, Karachi.
The court also summoned their medical record when their counsel alleged that the they had been beaten up severely by the FIA personnel. The matter of their release on bail would also come up for hearing on Sept 17.
Advocates Abdul Mujib Pirzada, Syed Ghulam Shah and Mohammad Asif Khudai appeared for the petitioners. Deputy Attorney- General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui assisted the court.
According to the prosecution, Junaid, Faisal, Asif Masih and Faizan Shamim wrongfully drew Rs550,000 in Karachi by stealing data from the computers of a Multan firm. An FIR had been registered against them and a challan had been submitted in the court of a special judge at Multan.
The petitioners’ counsel said the accused boys were not named in the FIR. A Karachi special court for offences in banks discharged them and declined to remand them in the FIA custody. The agency obtained their custody from a judicial magistrate after the banking court order by concealing facts. They had been tortured by the FIA, which was holding them in illegal custody. One of them was beaten unconscious and was unable to recognize his father when he visited him at the JPMC, they stated.
RESTRAINED: The Sindh High Court restrained a private TV channel on Monday from using a residential property in Clifton for its operations.
A resident of Block 5, Clifton, had complained that a TV network had launched its operations from a rented residential premises adjacent to his house. The operations were creating a nuisance for him and other residents.
A large number of people visit the network and their vehicles obstruct traffic. Besides creating noise pollution, the network also obstructs light and air. Illegal and dangerous structures have been raised in violation of the rules.
The defendant channel admitted that it was using the residential premises for commercial activity but denied recording of programmes at the site. It said many other commercial organizations had their offices in the adjoining residential premises without any protest by the residents. It said it had applied to the Karachi Building Control Authority for conversion of the premises into commercial property but the application had not been accepted so far.
Advocate Khalid Jawed Khan, who appeared for the plaintiff, submitted that the defendant and the KBCA had both admitted in their counter-affidavits that the property was residential and that it had been put to commercial use in violation of the law and rules. The suit be decreed on this ground alone, he argued.
Justice M. Mujibullah Siddiqui, who heard the suit, barred the channel from using the premises for commercial purposes until grant of permission by the KBCA after completion of the various formalities prescribed by the rules. He also ordered the demolition of illegal structures and asked the KBCA to report compliance within 15 days.
