1. SHAKIL AHMED ABBASI, PRESIDING OFFICER.---Accused Muneeb Iqbal Batla son of Muhammad Iqbal Batla, was sent up to face trial for the offence under sections 66, 66-A of Copyright Ordinance, 1962 in Crime No 07/2016 of P.S. FIA Anticorruption Circle, Karachi.
2. Brief facts as alleged in the FIR are that, on the receipt of complaint made by Messrs Roving Source and with the approval of competent authority, a raid was conducted by FIA team comprising Inspector Zahid Hussain Bukhari, Sub-Inspector Roa Muhammad Akram, ASI Riaz Bhatti and other FIA Staff of FIA Anti Corruption Circle, Karachi along with complainant Jawed Iqbal (Manager Operation) and Aamir Masood (Manager IPR) and other staff. Proceeded at Messrs Batla Enterprises, situated at Salam Centre, 1st Floor, Densohall, M.A Jinnah Road, Karachi. On reaching at the above mentioned address Munib Iqbal son of Muhammad Iqbal, owner of Messrs Batla Enterprises who deals in fans capacitors of WEGO Plus and FUJJ was found busy in selling/distributing/supplying capacitors of WEGO Plus and FUJJ. After minutely examination of the above product the same were found counterfeit/infringement of the original product of Messrs Khuwaja Electronic (Pvt.) Limited as the shape, size, style, getup and color limitation of genuine product is Red Color from the outside of capacitor and filled in Black Color and also authorized to sale out in all over the Pakistan. During the raid huge quantity of above counterfeit/ infringement product i,e, WEGO Plus which was registered/replica capacitors was found available at Messrs Batla Enterprises, situated at Salam Centre, 1st Floor, Densohall, M.A Jinnah Road, Karachi which was seized under proper seizure memo prepared on the spot in presence of witnesses.
3. During Initial enquiry the owner Munib Iqbal son of Muhammad Iqbal owner of Messrs Batla Enterprises, was asked to produce any legal authority/permission to sale/Distribute/supply above capacitor, but he failed to produce any lawful authority and disclosed that the above mentioned capacitor are brought from Gujranwala through transportation and sold in local market of Karachi for some profit as they are cheaper in price than the original one. He further informed that the unregistered capacitors are purchased from Hafiz Tayyab who is living in Gujranwala. Hence the FIR was registered.
4. Today learned counsel for accused Muneeb Iqbal Batla son of Muhammad Iqbal Batla filed an application under section 63, Cr.P.C. in which he urged that Hon'ble Court may be pleased to discharge him from the present FIR as the accused has not committed any Crime and he himself is an affectee of above mentioned crime committed by some other persons and all the details regarding said culprit has already been provided by the applicant/accused to the FIA officials along-with Purchase invoice of the said recovered items. It was further urged by learned counsel for accused that accused/applicant was not selling the said replica intentionally, deliberately or "knowingly" but he was unaware regarding the status of the said products, moreover the complainant has never issued any notice or warning to accused to stop the sale of said items, therefore the sections of Copyright Ordinance 1962 does not attract against him. Accordingly, it was prayed that the present accused may be discharged from the above offence being innocent, otherwise his future will be doomed as he is student and doing part time business to meet with his educational needs as well as needs of his family. Accused Munib Iqbal Batla placed himself at the mercy of the Court. Order for notice on that application is passed. As no Prosecutor is yet appointed by FIA, therefore copy of said application is supplied to I.O. who has vehemently opposed the said application. However, he has suggested that accused may be convicted till rising of the court and be directed to pay a token fine of Rs, 1000/- with warning to be careful in future.
5. Accordingly, the application under section 63, Cr.P.C. ibid stands rejected.
6. However, exercising powers under section 265-H Ibid and keeping in view the request of the accused, conceding to the same by the I.O., and more particularly the facts that the accused did not produce the pirated capacitor himself but was selling them as a retail seller, "unknowingly" that the same are pirated goods manufactured by someone else in Gujranwala and the said fact was disclosed to the I.O. during investigation by him. I find substance in the plea of the accused and hold that under the stated facts the accused does not fall within the mischief of section 66 of Copyright Ordinance Ibid as it qualifies infringement of copyright with the word "knowingly".
7. Besides, even on merit some deficiencies have been found on prosecution side i,e, the compliance of section 103 Ibid has not been made as no case property along with Mashirnama is produced for comparison purposes of registered and allegedly pirated artistic work, nor any independent witness appears to have been cited.
8. Therefore, before awarding of above sentence and fine I have taken into consideration the principle of Criminal Jurisprudence that the purpose of sentence is twofold, firstly it would create such atmosphere which could become a deterrence for the people who had inclination towards crime, secondly to work as a medium in reforming the offender with a warning to be careful in future. As regard judging adequacy of sentence certain factors, such as, circumstance in which offence was committed and whether the same was committed "deliberately" or "undeliberately" "knowingly" or "unknowingly" and the age and character of offender etc, are also being considered.
9. I therefore, keeping in view of the above reasons and taking the lenient view and with the concurrence of I.O. convict the accused Munib Iqbal Batla son of Muhammad Iqbal Batla till rising of the Court and impose a fine of Rs, 1,000/- (Rupees one thousand only) with a clear warning to be careful in future to not to cause any grievance to complainant again. If the fine amount is not paid, the accused shall suffer R.I. for 15 days.