PESHAWAR: A local court on Saturday convicted a person on the charge of running an illegal Voice over Internet Protocol gateway exchange in the provincial capital and sentenced him to one year rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs2 million.

Additional district and sessions judge Kalsoom Azam Khan pronounced after completion trial that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused, Habibullah Khan, and that evidence on record proved his involvement in the commission of the offence.

In the case, the Federal Investigation Agency had received a complaint from the PakistanTelecommunication Authority over running of an illegal gateway exchange in a Hayatabad Township house.

A team of the FIA`s National Response Centre for Cyber Crimes headed by SHO Inspector Shahid Ilyas had raided the house of a bureaucrat, stated to be an uncle of the convict, on Nov 25, 2014, and seized the gateway exchange along with other items, including dozens of SIM cards.

An FIR was registered under Section 31 of the PTA Act.

The bail petition of the convict was earlier dismissed by the trial court. The judgment was upheld by higher courts, including the Supreme Court.

Inspector Shahid Ilyas appeared before the court and insisted theaccused had inflicted loss to the exchequer by running illegal gateway.

He said the equipment used in the offence were also recovered from his possession.

`Several invoices of different money exchange companies were recovered from the accused proving that he had received several monetary transactions from abroad in connection with the said gateway,` he said.

Inspector Shahid pointed out that security situation in the country was delicate and therefore, such gateways had become dangerous for being used by local terrorists to remain in contact with their accomplices living abroad.

He said tracing calls through such gateways was difficult for thelaw enforcement agencies as the equipment required for it was very expensive.

The defence lawyer said his client was falsely implicated in the case and that he used the seized equipment for personal use and not illegal gateway.

Also, the court convicted two people for a murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment with Rs250,000 fine.

The accused, Daud and Faqir Hussain, both residents of Fishtakhara area, were arrested on the charge of shooting down Akhtar Munir and injuring his son, Imdad Khan, over old enmity.

The case against them was registered under sections 302 and 324 of Pakistan Penal Code.