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Chennai Cyber Crime Cell gets its first case in record time

The Case of The State of Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti is notable for the fact that the conviction was achieved successfully within a relatively quick time of 7 months from the filing of the FIR. Considering that similar cases have been pending in other states for a much longer time, the efficient handling of the case which happened to be the first case of the Chennai Cyber Crime Cell going to trial deserves a special mention.

Mr S.Balu, the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Photograph Enclosed) in charge of the Chennai's Cyber Crime Cell at the Commissioner's office acknowledged that the assistance provided by Naavi and the Cyber Evidence Archival Center ( http://www.ceac4india.com/ ) was helpful in the speedy resolution of the case.

The case was also notable since it silenced several critics about the inability of the Police in general to be capable of Cyber Crime investigation and more so production of satisfactory evidence to prove the case in a court of law.

This case will therefore be considered as a land mark case in the history of Cyber Crime Management in India.

The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief that she was soliciting.

Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the Police traced the accused to Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. The accused was a known family friend of the victim and was reportedly interested in marrying her. She however married another person. This marriage later ended in divorce and the accused started contacting her once again. On her reluctance to marry him, the accused took up the harassment through the Internet.

On 24-3-2004 Charge Sheet was filed u/s 67 of IT Act 2000, 469 and 509 IPC before The Hon’ble Addl. CMM Egmore by citing 18 witnesses and 34 documents and material objects. The same was taken on file in C.C.NO.4680/2004. On the prosecution side 12 witnesses were examined and entire documents were marked.

The Defence argued that the offending mails would have been given either by ex-husband of the complainant or the complainant her self to implicate the accused as accused alleged to have turned down the request of the complainant to marry her.

Further the Defence counsel argued that some of the documentary evidence was not sustainable under Section 65 B of the Indian Evidence Act. However, the court based on the expert witness of Naavi and other evidence produced including the witness of the Cyber Cafe owners came to the conclusion that the crime was conclusively proved.

The court has also held that because of the meticulous investigation carried on by the IO, the origination of the obscene message was traced out and the real culprit has been brought before the court of law. In this case Sri S. Kothandaraman, Special Public Prosecutor appointed by the Government conducted the case.

Honourable Sri.Arulraj, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, delivered the judgement on 5-11-04 as follows:

“The accused is found guilty of offences under section 469, 509 IPC and 67 of IT Act 2000 and the accused is convicted and is sentenced for the offence to undergo RI for 2 years under 469 IPC and to pay fine of Rs.500/-and for the offence u/s 509 IPC sentenced to undergo 1 year Simple imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.500/- and for the offence u/s 67 of IT Act 2000 to undergo RI for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.4000/- All sentences to run concurrently.”

The accused paid fine amount and he was lodged at Central Prison, Chennai. This is considered the first case convicted under section 67 of Information Technology Act 2000 in India.