PESHAWAR: A local court has acquitted a man of the Federal Investigation Agency charge of creating a woman`s fake Facebook account and uploading her photoshopped objectionable pictures.

Additional district and session judge Ashfaq Ali Haider ruled that the prosecution didn`t establish the connection between the fake Facebook account and the accused, ZahidBilal,aresidentof Abbottabad.

The FIA had registered FIR of the case on Mar 31, 2016, af ter holding an inquiry into the complaint of Malik Baber Khalil, who had alleged that the accused had created a fake Facebook account of his sister.

The FIR was registered under sections36(violation of privacy ofinformation) and 37 (damage to information system) of Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002, and sections 419 (punishment for cheating by impersonation) and 420 (cheating) of the PakistanPenal Code.

The complainant had alleged that his sister had given her mobile phone to the accused, a cellphone shop`s owner, for repair.

He added that the accused had stolen data from the cellphone, including his sister`s pictures, photoshopped those pictures, created a fake Facebook account and uploaded fake photos. The complainant said the accused had defamed his sister and also sent those photoshopped pictures to her husband.

Sahibzada Riazatul Haq and Batool Rafaqat, lawyers for the accused, said their client was falsely implicated in the case.

They said the investigation agency didn`t develop any link of the accused with the fake Facebook account.

The counselsaid the fake account was previously in the name of another man, who was not investigated in the case, and that the account was blocked but reopened afterwards.

They said the cyber crime was a very technical issue and someone couldn`t be convicted for it merely on the basis of allegations.

The counsel said the FIA should produce concrete evidence connecting their client with the commission of the reported offence. They addedthat there was no evidence to prove that the said account was operated by the accused.

BAIL GRANTED: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Friday grante d bail to a man accuse d by the counter-terrorism department of possessing explosive substance to be used for terrorism.

Justice Syed Afsar Shah issued an order in that respect during the hearing into a petition of suspect Zahir Shah, a resident of Mohmand Agency.

The petitioner`s lawyer, Shabir Hussain Gigyani, said the CTD had alleged in the FIR registered on Nov 23, 2017, that the petitioner and another suspect, Abdul Karim, were arrested by them after recovery of five kilogrammes explosive material, some hand grenades, detonators and fuses.

He said it was a concocted case as his client had been taken into custody by the law-enforcement agencies few weeks before the alleged occurrence.

The lawyer said his client was kept in illegal confinement before he was charged in the case.

He said the prosecution didn`t produce the report of the bomb disposal unit regarding the seizure of the explosive substances allegedly recovered from his client.