PTI
 
Kolkata, Jun 10: The first cyber crime accused in West Bengal, who allegedly sent pornographic material to women attached to an NGO, was on Friday granted bail by the Calcutta High Court.

Surojit Pal, a post graduate in IT and a systems developer at a Salt Lake-based firm, was granted bail by Justice S P Talukdar after remaining in custody for 37 days.

Pal was charged under section 67 of IT Act of 2000 for sending obscene material through the internet, a charge that holds a maximum 10 years imprisonment. He was also charged under Section 354/34 (violating modesty of a woman) of IPC.

Pal, in his mid-20s, was arrested from his residence in the first week of May by the city police following a complaint that he was sending obscene e-mail and pictures to women attached to the NGO in the south Kolkata.

Pal had claimed to be suffering from psychological problems and sought help from the NGO.

Suspecting Pal's intentions, the women stopped taking his calls on the NGO's helpline, but he created an e-mail account and sent a mail to them on January 13, the prosecution counsel stated.

Following this, he kept changing e-mail accounts and sent a number of obscene photographs.

A complaint was lodged with the city police, following which its cyber offences wing arrested Pal.

Pal's lawyer Sudipto Moitra submitted that he was highly educated and hailed from a respectable family.

Due to psychological problems, Pal had called up the NGO and sent the e-mails to express his state of mind and to seek advice for his problems, Moitra submitted.