The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Online and through text: harassment all the same

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Online and through text: harassment all the same

Karthik Subramanian

Social networking sites and SMSs can spell trouble too

CHENNAI : Sometimes it all starts with a `hi.'

Several women have found the hard way that replying to such innocuous SMSs from a stranger could eventually lead to harassment, the digital way. Because it is not long before such messages turn obscene and the casual conversations veer to full-blown harassment.

Text messaging, e-mails and online discussion boards have made women vulnerable in ways like never before. The perpetrator of the crime is invisible until the case blows over, something that seldom happens. Just a small percentage of such cases get reported at the police stations. And an even smaller percentage leads to convictions. Chennai City Cyber Crime Cell assistant commissioner of police M. Sudhakar says: "When the victims realise that the perpetrator is known to them ... in most cases, they drop charges. But we keep getting petitions regularly about cyber harassment."

IT Act

Harassment through digital communications find mention in Section 67 of the Information Technology Act that lays the groundwork for convictions for persons "spreading obscene material in electronic form."

The Internet and the mobile phones may appear to provide a veil of immunity for the perpetrators of cyber harassment; but according to cyber law experts this is a myth. N. Vijayashankar, who assisted the Cell in a few cyber harassment cases, says digital evidence is as powerful as physical evidence.

"The trick is knowing how to present it," he adds. A case relating to the cyber harassment of a Chennai woman in 2004 is widely acknowledged to be the first leading to conviction under Section 67 of the Act. The offender was a Mumbai resident Suhas Katti, who allegedly posted a photograph and mobile phone number of a city woman in a popular online message group.

S. Balu, who handled the case as head of the City Cyber Crime Cell then, recalled Mr. Katti had withdrawn the objectionable material when he realised that a case was registered. The defence had argued that the documentary evidence was not sustainable under the Evidence Act.

However, the court relied upon the expert witnesses and other evidence produced, including the witnesses of the Cyber Cafe owners, and concluded that the crime was conclusively proved.

The Cyber Crime Archival Centre, promoted by Mr. Vijayashankar, offers a way to record and preserve digital evidence.

It creates a record, admissible in the courts, that the objectionable material was online at a given time. Police advise that the victims should not delete objectionable SMS messages if they are serious about pressing charges.

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