Tech Shout!

In 2007, Lakshmana Kailash K, a software engineer working at HCL and residing in Bangalore, India was wrongly jailed for as many as 50 days by the Pune police cyber cell. Now he has issued a 10-page long legal notice against telecom giant Bharti Airtel, principal secretary (Home) Maharashtra government and assistant commissioner of police (financial & cyber crime unit), Pune police, and has also demanded for a handsome sum of Rs. 20 crore.

26-year-old Lakshmana had been wrongly dragged to jail on the allegations of being involved in an internet crime, where he was believed to have posted inappropriate pictures of Chattrapati Shivaji on social networking site Orkut. He was arrested on the basis of the IP address that was provided by his ISP Bharti. And of course, in reality, the IP address was not Lakshmana’s.

He was dragged to court under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and was charged under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code for a premeditated and malicious act intended to attack religious sentiments. In addition, he was also hit by Section 67 of the Information Technology Act for publishing ‘lascivious’ material or material that ‘appeals to the prurient interest’, which carries a punishment of five years’ jail and gives the police the right to search cyber cafes and residences without a warrant.

Though the truth was unveiled before the worst could happen, by the time further police investigation was done on this, Lakshmana had already spent close to 2 months at Yerwada Jail.

This entire tyranny was first reported by TOI in the beginning of November, last year. A copy of the legal notice has also been sent to National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, which explains his anger towards the police and judicial system in India, and the loopholes within it.