KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday granted bail to six men, including the owner of a call centre and his employees, in a creditcard datatheftcase.

Advocate Mian Rafiu Ahmed Tunio had filed applications on behalf of suspects Muhammad Kashif, Umair Karim, Noshad Karim, Mehtab Ali, Obaid Akram and Haider Karim before Judicial Magistrate (East) Yusra Ashfaq, seeking post-arrest bail.

After hearing both sides, the court granted bail to the suspects against a surety bond of Rs300,000 each.The court ordered jail authorities to release them if they are not required in any other case.

The defence counsel submitted that his clients were falsely implicated in this case and the FIR and supporting documents lacked specific evidence linking the applicant to the alleged offences of data theft or online fraud.

`The prosecution has not produced any evidence of financial gain or direct involvement of the applicants in fraudulent activities. Mere possession of electronic devices is insufficient to establish criminal intent,` the counsel submitted.

The suspects have been arrested and booked for allegedly stealing confidentialfinancial data of foreigners through spoofed calls and impersonation.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered a case against the suspects under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data, 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 6 (unauthorised access to critical infrastructure information system or data), 13 (electronic forgery), 14 (electronic forger), 16 (unauthorised use of identity information) and 26 (spoofing) of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 read with Section 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly Inducing delivery of property) and 109 (abetment ) of the Pakistan Penal Code.