Techie held for trying to tarnish girls name

HYDERABAD: A software engineer, who sent e-mails abusing the character of an engineering graduate, to her would-be husband, was arrested on Monday by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The accused reportedly used his friends' personal computer, laptops and Internet data cards to send the mails, to try to hide his identity. However, cyber crime sleuths narrowed down on the friends and after questioning them, managed to nab the man.The arrested, Dharmadas Hari Prasad of Jaggaiahapeta in Krishna district completed his BTech and later joined as a software engineer in a small firm at Kukatpally. He recently quit his job. CID additional superintendent of police U Rammohan said Hari Prasad, while studying BTech from a private college in 2008, managed to get the mobile number of a school friend and professed his love to her. The girl, however, refused his proposal.In February 2011, the girl's marriage was fixed with a US-based NRI and Hari Prasad came to know about it. "With the help of Facebook, he got to know the NRI's e-mail. Hari Prasad created a fake e-mail ID and started sending obscene and abusive mails defaming the girl's character to her fiancee. In the mails, the accused also advised the person not to marry the girl and eventually the marriage got cancelled," Rammohan said.The girl's father then lodged a complaint with cyber crime police on March 14.Investigating the case, police got log details provided by Google and end-user details provided by service providers like Tata, BSNL and Reliance. This helped the sleuths narrow in on the computers and laptops from where the mails were send. Initially, police caught owners of the systems and on questioning them, they narrowed down on Hari Prasad."As the complainant hailed from Jaggaiahapeta, we zeroed on friends of the computer owners who hail from the same place and arrested Hari Prasad," Rammohan said. Investigators said the girl's family had no doubts about the role of Hari Prasad, who also lived in the same colony.The hard disks of the laptops and data cards seized and cases under Sections 66A, 67 of IT Act, 2008 and Section 469 and 500 IPC were registered against the accused.