KARACHI: An assistant professor working at Karachi University has been arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Cyber Crime Cell for harassing a female teacher on the internet.

Dr. Farhan Kamrani, assistant professor at the psychology department of the varsity, was arrested earlier on Tuesday after a complaint was filed against him.

The female teacher claimed in the complaint lodged with the FIA that Kamrani had set up a fake social media profile impersonating her.

The complainant told Dawn.com that fake Facebook pages were created under her name starting in February 2015.

“He created five fake Facebook pages, and I lodged the first complaint in May 2015,” she said.

"A lecturer of a private university had submitted a complaint before the Cyber Crime Cell of the FIA recently, stating that someone had made a fake Facebook profile impersonating her," said FIA officials.

The FIA officials added that the lecturer's photos were also doctored by the accused. Kamrani was also charged with posting immoral pictures on a webpage connected to the complainant.

FIA officials said that they had contacted Facebook to ascertain the identity of the suspect. After verification, an FIR was registered on October 4 against Kamrani.

While talking to Dawn.com, Campus Security Advisor Dr Khalid Iraqi also confirmed the incident and said, "FIA has sent the copy of the First Information Report (FIR) to the KU registrar and acting upon that the vice-chancellor has decided to suspend the professor".

The fake profile page which Kamrani had set up was taken down by the FIA following his arrest.

Kamrani has been remanded into FIA custody for 14 days by a judicial magistrate, added FIA officials.

The assistant professor has been arrested under Section 21 of the recently passed Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016.

The offense is non-bailable and non-compoundable, meaning the accused can not be pardoned by the complainant.

According to the Kamrani's Facebook profile, he studied psychology at the University of Karachi and previously worked with the Sindh Police as a psychologist.