The Bill was placed in the House on April 9 aiming to deal with cybercrimes, including hurting the religious sentiment, negative propaganda against the Liberation War and Bangabandhu, and illegal activities in e-transactions and spreading defamatory data.
The JS body proposed inclusion of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 in the bill where any offence will be committed under the law using computer, digital device, computer network, digital network or any other digital means.
The punishment for this offence will be not more than 14 years of imprisonment or not more than Tk 25 lakh as fine or both.
If a person commits the same offence for more than once, the punishment will be lifetime imprisonment or not more than Tk 1 crore fine or both.
In the report, the committee suggested inclusion of the definition of “spirit of Liberation War” under section 21.
The definition of the spirit of the Liberation War as proposed by the committee is: “The high ideals of nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism, which inspired our heroic people to dedicate themselves to, and our brave martyrs to sacrifice their lives in the national liberation struggle.”
It also proposed inclusion of the Right to Information Act (RTI) under section 3 in case of right to information-related matter.
The parliamentary watchdog kept the section 43 that says a police official can search or arrest anyone without any warrant issued by a court and police would carry out the job following the proposed security council’s director general's approval.
The committee, however, reduced the jail term to 10 years from 14 years for spreading negative propaganda against the Liberation War or Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman using digital devices. The fine for this kind of offence remains the same at Tk 1 crore.
Earlier, the proposed law made many crimes cognisable and nonbailable offences.
In the proposed bill, digital, database and critical information infrastructure have been defined.
As per the bill, digital forensic labs, and a digital security agency under the Prime Minister’s Office will be set up, while a national computer emergency response team and an 11-member digital security council, headed by the Prime Minister, will be constituted.
If any person commits the offence for second time or more, the punishment will be lifetime imprisonment or fine Tk 3 crore or both.
The punishment for illegal access to critical information infrastructure (CII) is maximum seven-year of imprisonment or Tk 25 lakh fine or both, while that for damaging the CII through illegal access is maximum 14 years’ imprisonment, or Tk 1 crore fine or both.
If the offence is committed by the same person for second time or more, the punishment will be lifetime imprisonment or Tk 2.5 crore fine or both.
The punishment for resorting to cyber violence which will jeopardise integrity or security or sovereignty of the state, intimidate people or any section of people, impede legitimised access to computer, computer network or internet is maximum 14 years’ imprisonment or maximum Tk 1 crore fine or both.
The punishment for hurting religious values and sentiment is maximum 10-year imprisonment, or Tk 20 lakh fine or both.
The punishment for providing or spreading defamatory data is maximum three-year jail or maximum Tk 500,000 fine or both, while that for destroying communal harmony is maximum seven years’ imprisonment, Tk 500,000 fine or both.
The punishment for illegal activities using e-transaction services of bank, insurance, financial institution and any other organisation is maximum five years’ imprisonment, Tk 500,000 fine or both.
The punishment for resorting to cyber hacking is maximum 14 years imprisonment and Tk one crore fine, or both.
Resorting to digital theft by capturing any confidential information of government and semi-government, autonomous and statuary bodies by using computer, computer network, digital network or any other electronic devices through illegal access is a cognisable offence.
The offences under sections 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34 of the proposed law are cognisable and non-bailable, while the offences under sections 20, 25, 29 and 48 are bailable ones.