No leniency for sharing objectionable pictures: IHC

Rejects post-arrest bail plea of accused who posted girl’s objectionable photos online

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has observed that the suspects who share objectionable pictures of women with others and similar offences do not deserve any leniency.

The remarks were made by IHC’s Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri during the hearing of a plea seeking bail for a man, Muhammad Haseeb, who is accused of sharing objectionable pictures of a girl on social media site Facebook and her father and husband on WhatsApp. The court rejected the post-arrest bail plea of the accused.

While rejecting Haseeb’s bail plea, Justice Jahangiri issued a six-page written verdict in the case. The court said that according to the technical analysis expert report, the accused committed a serious offence. In the court verdict, it has been said that according to the records, the accused sent the pictures to the girl’s father, husband and friends and also uploaded them on Facebook.

“This crime has become very common in society. When boys and girls are in a relationship, girls send their objectionable photos to boys,” the court observed.

The IHC’s decision further said: “When the boy and the girl break up, boys upload objectionable pictures on Facebook or share them with friends and family members of the girl. These images cause lifelong shame for the girls and destroy their family life. In most cases, girls also committed suicide.”

The court remarked that the accused involved in such crimes did not deserve any leniency.

The case against Haseeb was registered at the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cybercrime Reporting Centre, Islamabad, under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, alleging that the accused “disgraced and destroyed the modesty” of the complainant by capturing or recording her objectionable pictures with authorisation and publicly projected them and shared with her family members.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2024.