The Hindu : New Delhi News : Teenager held for misuse of Internet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 10, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Teenager held for misuse of Internet

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 9. A 19-year-old student of a polytechnic here has been arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police for allegedly posting the name and telephone number of a girl for a "friendship club" on the Internet. The father of the girl had sent an e-mail to the Delhi Police Commissioner, K. K. Paul, complaining about objectionable queries that his daughter was receiving.

According to the police, the complaint had been received by the Commissioner more than a fortnight ago. He handed it over to the Special Cell. Following investigations, a Special Cell team arrested Puneet Malhotra, a resident of Keshavpuram in North-West Delhi, on Tuesday.

During interrogation, Puneet, studying computer engineering at a polytechnic institute, told the police that he had managed to get the name and telephone number of the girl, also a resident of North-West Delhi, from his girlfriend who happened to be a neighbour of the victim.

The police said Puneet supplied the name and number to the free messaging service provided by a local website for people seeking friends. The first call was made to the victim's house on October 25. After that, many people began calling up the number and posed objectionable questions to the victim's father and the victim herself.

Puneet purportedly told the police that he gave the number to the messaging service simply to harass the girl. It was not clear if he wanted to settle any scores with her.

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