Banking court told to handle cyber crime case

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court directed a trial court on Thursday to dispose of a cyber crime case within four months.

Petitioner Abdul Zaheer, a private bank’s cash service supervisor, has challenged the cyber crime charges, which were filed against him by the CID police. He has also challenged his detention by the CID who kept him on charges of misappropriation of funds. Zaheer’s lawyer said that he had been locked up illegally for a year and a half on the directives of the NIB bank’s authorities for allegedly swindling Rs25 million.

The CID filed a case against him, FIR No. 192/2008, but his lawyer submitted that it did not have the authority to do so as the case was pending before a special judge. According to Zaheer’s lawyer, no charge was framed even though the investigation officer had submitted a charge sheet. His counsel contended that according to the Supreme Court judgment, the CID or special investigating force were not authorised to register cases against cognisable offences.

They were only required to submit charge-sheets before a trial court. He said that the registration of the FIR for a cyber crime by the CID police should be declared illegal or the case should be passed on to the trial court. The SHC had on September 6, 2008 directed the petitioner to move the application before a trial court if he felt aggrieved by the notification issued by the Sindh government, declaring the CID a police station instead of an investigation wing.

The application was moved under section 249 of the CrPC but the trial court dismissed it without appreciating the facts of law.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 21st, 2010.