LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday awarded a collective imprisonment of 24 years to a man involved in blackmailing over 200 lady doctors through their social media accounts.

The Central Investigation Agency (CIA) police had arrested Abdul Wahab in 2015 after several lady doctors complained that the he blackmailed them through their facebook and other social media accounts.

Gawal Mandi police had lodged a case against the suspect on the complaint of the Young Doctors Association (YDA).

ATC-I Judge Sajjad Ahmad announced the verdict in the presence of the suspect and the prosecution.

The court convicted Wahab for 14-year imprisonment under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, along with Rs500,000 fine. He was also handed down seven-year term in jail under section 419 (cheating by impersonation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) along with Rs100,000 fine.

The court further handed down three-year sentence to him under section 25-D of Telegraph Act with Rs100,000 fine.

“All the sentences will run concurrently and benefit of section 382-B of CrPC shall be given to convict,” said the verdict.

The section 382-B says that the length of any sentence of imprisonment imposed upon an accused shall be treated as reduced by any period during which he/she was detained in custody for such an offence.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2019