On Friday, a Mumbai sessions court convicted and sentenced a 32-year-old computer engineer named Anees Ansari to life in jail on charges including cyber terrorism. Ansari was apprehended in October 2014 and has been held since on accusations that he misused the computer and internet service of the private firm where he worked to gather information for a conspiracy to launch an attack on an American school in the city’s Bandra Kurla Complex and kill children at the school.
The court found him guilty under multiple provisions of the Information Technology Act, including 66 (F) (cyber-terrorism), and sentenced him to life in prison. According to the reports, this is the first conviction in the state of Maharashtra which is related to a case involving cyber-terrorism.
Ansari was also convicted under Sections 115 (abetment of an offence punishable by death or imprisonment for life) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by Additional Sessions Judge Dr A A Joglekar. The accused under this clause has been sentenced to five years in prison. He has also been ordered to pay a Rs 25,000 penalty under Section 43(a) of the IT Act (compensation for failure to protect data).
The court on October 21 said that Ansari was given access to a computer and the network in his private office for official work, and he created a phoney Facebook account on Facebook using the official device. According to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), from August 2, 2011, to October 10, 2014, Ansari used his bogus account to interact with individuals and send offensive messages on ISIS ideology to ‘threaten the unity and integrity of the nation in’.
The ATS had submitted that Ansari created a profile in the name of Usayrim Logan, corresponded with another individual, and had discussed carrying out a “lone wolf” attack targeting many places in Mumbai. It was also reported that he obtained information about a thermite bomb as part of a scheme to target an American school and kill children of foreign nationalities.
The Court further said that Ansari had exceeded such authorized access provided by the company. According to the court, this proved the accusation of cyber terrorism. “The evidence tendered by the prosecution in the given case do certainly demonstrate that the accused knowingly and intentionally with an intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of people by exceeding such authorised access,” additional sessions judge Joglekar said.
The court took into account the depositions of 25 witnesses in the case. Special public prosecutor (SPP) Madhukar Dalvi demanded the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Ansari, citing the seriousness of the offences and the accused’s ‘high level of qualification’. Dalvi told the court that if he is released, there is a chance he might execute his plans from 2014.
Ansari’s lawyers, Sharif Shaikh and Kritika Agarwal, meanwhile stated that there was no evidence that Ansari used his office’s internet connection to promote terror activities or that he planned to carry out the attack. The counsel also argued that the provision on cyber terrorism only applies to those who break or infiltrate a computer system to which they are not authorized, not to those who misuse access.
They also requested mercy because he already had served eight years in prison. They further said that the accused should be released as he came from an impoverished family and that the offence was not actually committed. However, the Court said that the act may have harmed the country’s integrity and security and that the punishment must be equal to the magnitude of the offence.
