ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad district and session judge on Thursday sentenced Axact Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shoaib Shaikh and 23 other employees of the company to jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1.3 million each in a case pertaining to the sale of fake degrees.
The offenders were sentenced to three years imprisonment besides Rs 0.1 million fine under Section 419 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC); three years and 0.2m fine under Section 420; seven years and Rs0.5m fine under Section 468; and another seven years and Rs0.5m fine under Section 471 of the CrPC.
However, all sentences will run concurrently—reducing the total period of imprisonment to seven years at most. While the total amount of the fine to be paid is Rs 1.3m by each of the offenders.
Judge Mumtaz Hussain, however, acquitted Shaikh’s wife, Ayesha, Col (r) Younis and Col (r) Jamil. Shaikh and the other convicts were absolved of charges pertaining to electronic crimes and money laundering.
The FIA maintained before the court that an inquiry dated May 19, 2015 was started against Axact Ltd Islamabad region for preparing and selling degrees of fake online educational institutions with fake accreditation bodies and enticing innocent people through impersonation as student counsellors within Pakistan and abroad.
FIA’s special prosecutor Syed Ashfaq Naqvi argued that the software company sold fictitious degrees to different people in Pakistan and abroad and brought a bad name to the country. He said the FIA had conducted a thorough probe and after completing due procedure filed the challan against the convicts in the trial court…….
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://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2018/07/05/axact-ceo-thrown-in-jail-for-peddling-degrees/