PTI

Mumbai, Nov 21: A 30-year-old architect working in a telecom firm in Bangalore was arrested for allegedly sending to an air hostess, with whom he had an extra-marital affair, an e-mail containing explicit pictures of her.

R Shashikaran met the  22-year-old air hostess working for Kingfisher airlines during a function in Bangalore around 18 months ago and the friendship soon turned into an affair during which he clicked some obscene pictures of the girl, a senior official of the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) said here.

"The girl is an air hostess and made frequent trips to Bangalore during which she regularly met Shashikaran.

Gradually she came to know that he was married and also got acquainted to his wife," he said.

Shashikaran sent the photographs on e-mail to the victim in August after the end of their relationship. She lodged a complaint with the CCIC and the IP address of the machine from which the mail was sent was traced to Bangalore, the official said.

Later it was found that Shashikaran had sent the e-mail from his workplace -- Bharti Infotel Ltd -- in Bangalore. A police team was sent to Bangalore and he managed to escape.

"By the time we went there for a second time, he had become cautious and successfully applied for an anticipatory bail," the official said.

A local court in Bangalore which gave temporary relief to Shashikaran on November 6 had asked him to be present in the CCIC in the city within 15 days and he reported at the CCIC office in the city police headquarters on Monday November 19, where he was arrested.     

The CCIC arrested Shashikaran but released him on bail immediately on the orders of the Bangalore court.

"He will be moving for a regular bail at the Esplanade court here tomorrow and we will oppose it. Even if we do not get his police custody, we have all the digital evidence to prove that the e-mail was sent to the air hostess by Shashikaran," said the officer.

Shashikaran has been booked under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form) and Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (outraging modesty of a woman).

The officer at CCIC also commended the courage shown by her in coming forward and lodging a complaint as in many cases, though the victims approach CCIC, they do not go till filing of the FIR which is mandatory for prosecuting the accused.