Man acquitted of cyber crime charges
Assistant Sessions Judge (East) Mustufa Safvi has acquitted a businessman of cyber crime charges.
Asghar Mehmood was prosecuted for illegally stealing electronic data from his previous employer, Al-Murtaza Machinery, on December 3, 2005. He was booked by the FIA on the complaint of Asif Ali Rashid under Sections 36 and 37 of the Electronic Transaction Ordinance-2002.
Mehmood’s counsel, Wazir Hussain Khoso, filed an acquittal application, and contended that no offence had been made out against the applicant. Moreover, Khoso said, his client had access to the system, and had therefore not violated any provision of law. He argued that electronic data that the applicant was accused of stealing was in fact his intellectual property, and requested the court to acquit the applicant because the case did not fall in the purview of the relevant sections of the ordinance. Special public prosecutor, however, opposed the application.
After hearing the arguments of the case, the ADJ observed that the case did not fall in the jurisdiction of the ordinance, because the applicant had not made any unauthorized access to the system. The ADJ granted the acquittal application, and the court ordered that Mehmood be released if he was not required for any other cases.
Source: The News
Date:5/21/2008
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