Daijiworld Media Network-Mangaluru (RJP)
Mangaluru, May 22: In a first of its kind case in the district, a person has been convicted and sentenced in a cyber crime case, sending a strong signal to cyber offenders.
Debraj Sen Gupta (26) from Bhardhaman district in West Bengal is the person convicted.
The person was convicted as per Section 66 of the Information Technology Act (hacking without permission) for which he has been imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 with a simple punishment of one year. In the same trial, for the offence under Section 67 of the same act, (transmitting obscene photos) he has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lac and a simple imprisonment of one year. Magistrate Undi Manjula from The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) third court delivered the judgment on Wednesday. The court has ordered that Rs one lac should go to the victim as compensation.
As per the details of the case, the accused had used the photos of a woman and used them after joining the face of the same with some other obscene photos and transmitted them through email.
The victim named Sharmista Shah from West Bengal worked as air hostess in Air India Express and stayed at Konchady in Mangaluru city. She had visited Bhardhaman in West Bengal with her male friend from Mangaluru in 2010. Debraj Sen who knew Sharmista very well had met her and her friend then. After that Deb hacked Sharmista’s email account and took her photos from there. He cropped them and inserted her face with other obscene photos and sent them to her, as well his friends using her email.
The case was lodged by Sharmista on February 21, 2010 against unknown person at Kavoor police station. Then Panambur inspector Valentine D’Souza (now with CCB) had investigated the case and filed the charge sheet. The accused was tracked based on the IP address.
There was a small twist in the case at one stage as Sharmista had backtracked from her original statement. Her male friend from Mangaluru also turned hostile. But in spite of these things, the court managed to convict the accused based on electronic evidence. The court relied on the forensic report of the mobile phone used to send the emails and statements from forensic officials from Hyderabad and police officers from Mangaluru.
Assistant public prosecutor Mohan Kumar B had argued on behalf of the government.