NEWS-INDIA: This time, Calcutta police slaps swift cyber crime charges
India-IT-West Bengal-Crime
This time, Calcutta police slaps swift cyber crime charges
By Krittivas Mukherjee, India Abroad News Service
Calcutta, Dec 3 - Thanks to new the Information Technology (IT) Act, police
here could move swiftly in booking two people for alleged cyber crimes,
unlike last year when they were caught in bind because of the absence of a
suitable law.
Cases have been lodged against two software engineers -- Indranil
Chatterjee, 25, and Sanjoy Ghosh, 25 -- for allegedly stealing data and
destroying the software of a medical transcription company.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (detective department) Banibrata Basu told
IANS that the framing of the new IT act had made it possible to pin down the
two software professionals by fixing precise charges under it. Both were
arrested and then granted bail.
Calcutta was in the news last year over a cyber crime involving a hate site
against Bengalis. With little legal armory at their disposal, the
authorities had been at a loss to deal with the situation then, because of
lack of suitable laws.
But this time, the police had no problems fixing charges against the
software professionals under the new IT law for illegal accessing, tampering
with documents and stealing and damaging data. They were charged under
Sections 65, 66, 43 of the IT Act. If convicted, the duo can be sentenced to
three years' imprisonment and fined up to Rs. 10 million.
According to Basu, the two used to be employed with a medical transcription
company and were arrested following a complaint lodged by the managing
director of that firm.
The complaint said the two arrested had resigned from their jobs to start
their own venture with data stolen from the medical transcription company
they originally worked for. They have also been charged with damaging other
data in the company's computers.
Basu told reporters that police then sought the help of computer experts and
raided the office of the two software engineers. Stolen software and data
were found from the duo's office computers. A few computers, some CD-ROMs
and floppy disks were seized.
-India Abroad News Service
