Background

A lady (the complainant) lodged a complaint that she was being harassed by a flood of telephone calls from unknown men with sexual intention at all odd hours and from various places around the world. As she was a working lady, most of the calls were received by her aged in-laws. When she had her telephone number changed, and requested the new number to be kept private, her neighbours started receiving the same kind of calls asking for her by name. This was thoroughly harassing her aged in-laws, her husband and also her neighbours. Some men also visited the house, seeking her by name.

Investigation

A caller ID was installed at the house of the complainant and a few of the local callers were interrogated. During interrogation it was found that the callers had obtained her e-mail ID in one of the chat rooms. All those who sent the mail to her got an auto response giving her telephone number and urging them to call during office hours on working days as her husband is away during those hours. On receiving such e-mails these people contacted her on the phone numbers given in the e-mail.

The police obtained a copy of the e-mail from a few callers. As this mail was auto generated, the originating IP of the mail only pointed to the Website server. Interaction in the chat room was the only time when the accused was directly talking to the different users of the chat room. The complainant was advised to change her telephone number and get an unlisted telephone number. Once she got her residence telephone number disconnected her neighbours started getting calls from different callers asking them to call the complainant.

Police requested for IP addresses of the e-mail IDs from the Website hosting company. In addition they asked for IP logs and registration profiles of the respective e-mail ID’s. The logs revealed the service provider (ISP), who subsequently provided the telephone number and address of the user.

However this did not lead to a particular person or a group of people, as the user was a company. Enquiries revealed that the accused was using the complainant company’s internet. On detailed analysis of the logs of the proxy server, three suspected nodes were put under surveillance and a copy was made of all IP packets sent from these nodes. These three nodes belonged to three senior officers of the company.

When the accused used the e-mail ID, it was traced through the ISP. The ISP provided the details of the IP and addresses/information connected to it. Raids were conducted at the residential address of the accused. It was found that on the two computers temporary files (of the accused) had been deleted. However using forensic software, few of these deleted files could be re-created. The PC of the accused also had incriminating evidence against him. He confessed to his guilt and was arrested.

During investigation it was learnt that the complainant was employed as a temporary executive engineer in the same company with the accused. The accused felt that though she was junior to him, she was not giving him proper respect. He started sending auto generated e-mails in her name, giving her telephone numbers and asking males to contact her during office hours.

It is the first registered cyber crime case in West Bengal.

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Last update : 12-05-2007 07:26

Keywords : cyber law, cyber lex, law, lex, Sexual Harrassment