Mangaluru: This verdict should serve as a warning bell for all anti-social elements misusing the Internet and social networks to vilify others or settle the score with others who they may dislike.
In a landmark judgement – said to be the first-ever conviction under the cyber laws – judge Undi Manjula Shivappa of a JMFC court here has convicted Debraj Sengupta (25) from Poschimbonga and sentenced him to a year in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 1.50 lakh.
Five years ago, an air hostess with Air India, who also hails from Poschimbonga, lived in an apartment in Konchadi here. She is said to have fallen in love with the son of builder from the city.
The pair had travelled to Bardwan in Poschimbonga. Sengupta had one-way love towards her and he could not stand to see them together. To wreak revenge, he, said to be an expert in information technology, hacked her e-mail and downloaded her pictures from it.
After morphing them, he pasted them to the faces of other women in adult websites. He also put an announcement that she was available, providing her mobile number.
On learning of this, the woman filed a complaint at the Kavoor police station. The police investigation led the IP address to Bardwan, about 300 kilometres from Kolkata. Sengupta was arrested and brought to the city. His computer was sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) in Hyderabad.
The analysis gave details as to how e-mail had been hacked, photographs downloaded and morphed images pasted on adult websites in the Internet.
Inspector Valentine D’Souza had filed a charge-sheet in the court. An interesting aspect of the case was that the woman and her friend at a later stage partly backed out in testifying against the accused. The woman had complained about the damage done to her but reportedly said nothing against him.
But the crime was established with the help of the CFSL report. Krishna Sastry Pandyala, a top official from the institution, came all the way from Hyderabad to give evidence in the matter.
Taking cognizance of the nature of the offence, the judge sentenced the accused to undergo a prison sentence of a year each under sections 66 and 67 of the IT Act of 2000. He will undergo them concurrently.
