KARACHI: A local court on Wednesday awarded ten years sentence to a former assistant professor of Karachi University over harassing a female teacher on the internet.
The court also imposed a fine of one million rupees on Dr Farhan Kamrani, who was an assistant professor at the psychology department of the university. He was as found guilty of impersonating a female colleague under Section 21 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016.
District and session judge (East) Khalid Hussain Shahani announced the verdict which was reserved earlier after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides. The judge noted that the prosecution successfully proved the charges beyond any reasonable doubt.
A female teacher lodged with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in 2016, alleging that Kamrani had set up a fake social media profile impersonating her.
The FIA officials said that the lecturer’s photos were also doctored by the accused who posted immoral pictures on fake social media accounts FIA Cyber Crime Cell had arrested Kamrani under harassment charges in October 2016.
The FIA officials said that they had contacted Facebook to ascertain the identity of the suspect. After verification of his identity, an FIR was registered against Kamrani. The assistant professor was arrested under Section 21 of the PECA 2016.
The court also awarded a three-year prison sentence to him and imposed a fine of Rs50,000 for the offence punishable under Section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The court further handed down a two-year prison term and imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on him for an offence punishable under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the PPC.
