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Boy held for slandering Sonia on Orkut
Published on Wed, May 21, 2008 at 00:21, Updated on Wed, May 21, 2008 at 00:34 in Sci-Tech section
Tags: India Cyber Crime, Orkut , Pune
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Pune: Twenty-two-year old Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid was arrested by the cyber crime cell of Pune police last Friday from Gurgaon in Haryana for posting vulgar content about Congress president Sonia Gandhi on social networking site Orkut.
"As far as India is concerned, one has fundamental rights but you can override them. But obscene and vulgar data is punishable under IT act,” says DCP, Pune Cyber Crime Cell, Sunil Phulari.
Vaid had posted the content an Orkut community titled 'I hate Sonia Gandhi'.
He has now been charged under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to printing of obscene content, and Section 67 of the IT Act relating to publishing of obscene information in electronic form.
Vaid will be produced in Pune's Shivajinagar court on Wednesday and if found guilty, he will have to face up to five years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
The arrest follows a complaint by a Congress worker in Pune, who saw the comments on the website. The police are now looking for everyone who has posted anything obscene about the Congress leader.
“We were not violent in registering our complaint. We just went to Mr Phulari and asked him if there are laws about the Web outside of India, why do we not have the same in India,” says Member, Pune City Congress, Nitin Gujarathi.
Interestingly, the creator of the community has not been charged as hating prominent personalities or having an opinion is not illegal in India.
Google, the owner of Orkut was asked to divulge details about Vaid and it obliged. In a statement, Google says, "In compliance with valid Indian legal process, we provided Indian law enforcement authorities with the IP address information they requested in this case."
“Service providers are also liable. There are moderators but they are smart and put up disclaimers,” says cyber law expert Karnika Seth.
So till India has strict privacy laws like the US, the only safeguard is to either join communities after due diligence or stay away.
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India Shining??!! What do you get when all the brains leave the country?? you are left with brainless ppl. And
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First part, how was the message classified "obscene" or "derogatory"? Second, the forum posted is an online forum, where there
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Don't Pune police have better things to do like handling REAL crime instead of dealing with someone's opinion?
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Congress party is ruled by some other brain. Perhaps those whose brain are undevelop join congress.
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End of democracy.....we are still slaves...before 1947 and now as well.....i guess polticians should be open for all critism they
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