FIA Cyber Crime Circle Karachi on Monday tracked down a person accused of harassing a female police officer, according to Additional Director Cyber Crime Circle Faizullah Korejo. The accused, Naeem alias Kalu, was arrested, reported Siasat News Pakistan.
Several immoral pictures and videos of the female officer were recovered from the mobile phone found in the possession of the accused. After being registered, he had reached Karachi for bail from where he was arrested. The accused had also sent these photos and videos to senior officials of various government departments.
The accused had been threatening the female officer for a long time and was also demanding money. The accused is very influential in Lahore. He was using his uncle’s SIMs to harass the officer, the news website claimed.
Man held for raping, blackmailing woman
Just last month, Dawn reported that Gujranwala Police arrested an accused who was allegedly involved in raping and blackmailing a woman at Wazirabad. The woman in her application to the police alleged that the accused, Asif, raped her on gunpoint and took inappropriate photos and videos of her. Subsequently, the woman added that the accused allegedly started blackmailing her and raped her several times saying that if she did not meet him, he would upload her pictures on social media.
The woman alleged that accused Asif had also snatched Rs 40,000 from her by blackmailing her. Sadar Wazirabad police arrested the accused and proceeded to the investigation.
Another blackmailer arrested in Peshawar
In the same month, the cybercrime cell of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) claimed to have arrested a man who was allegedly blackmailing and harassing a woman in Peshawar. The FIA said that the suspect was using some illicit pictures of the victim to blackmail her. Based on a complaint filed by the victim, the cell took action against the suspect.
The suspect was traced and arrested while evidence of the blackmail was recovered from his possession. Earlier, the FIA, on January 5, had arrested 10 people for their alleged involvement in online fraud activities and lodged cases against them in Karachi. Three of the alleged culprits were involved in a forgery incident in 2016 as well, the FIA had informed. The investigation body had subsequently filed a case against the suspects. The FIA cybercrime deputy director had said the felons had committed fraud of over Rs15 million and they were arrested from Okara, Peshawar and Karachi.
Blackmailing, harassment most reported crimes in 2018-19
Early this year, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director Cyber Wing Waqar Ahmed Chohan revealed that blackmailing and harassment over the social media portals were the most reported cybercrimes in the year 2018-19.
Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence about cyber crimes, he said a comprehensive data had indicated an overall increase in the crime rate as in 2016, around 9,075 complaints were received that reached to 56,696 complaints in 2019.
The Director Cyber Wing told the committee that in 2019 FIA only managed to take up 27,000 cases due to shortage of investigators in the Wing. “It is anticipated as per the calculations that cyber crimes related cases will increase in the future and may go beyond 100,000 complaints a year,” he added.
He pointed out that “This will primarily happen due to an increase in public access to relevant forums to highlight such heinous crimes that will eventually result in decline of such cases after proper trial and punishment.”
He informed the committee that FIA had been successful to penalize a pedophile who had been reported by the Norwegian Police. The Norwegian Police informed the FIA about the gang providing child porn material from Pakistan on ‘Dark web’ who was traced and punished of imprisonment and Rs1.2 million fine after court trial, he added.
He said the Cyber Wing lacked locators to detect the exact location of culprits committing cyber crimes, especially those involved in fraudulent and phishing phone calls, though some agencies possessed the facility.
Read More: Female teacher sexually harasses, blackmails boy in Karachi: report
Waqar Chohan also highlighted the bottlenecks in data sharing from social media applications, money financial solutions and even banks in case of inquiring financial fraud cases whereas legal framework also required amendments to make it more effective.
He requested the print and electronic media to highlight the 9911 Helpline of the FIA Cyber Crime Wing so that people should reach out to the relevant forum to report serious crimes.