Techie is Karnataka’s first cybercrime convict

The Crime Investigation Department achieved the state’s first conviction in a cybercrime case when a court convicted a techie after a 10-year legal battle.

To fight the case, the techie, Shivprasad Sajjan, even gave up his lucrative career to study law and become a criminal lawyer. Against all odds, Sajjan managed to drag the case citing loopholes in the law for almost a decade, before being finally convicted.

Sajjan was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fined Rs 25,000 by the 1st ACMM Court, Bengaluru. Sources in the CID revealed to DH that Sajjan was accused of sending obscene and derogatory emails to a victim. He had also reportedly sent the emails to many people from a cyber café. A case with crime number 33/2008 under section 67 of the IT Act was registered in the Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS), CID, Bengaluru.

In fact, when the complaint was filed, the accused was arrested and sent to judicial custody. However, after managing to obtain bail, he quit his job and took up LLB to become a criminal lawyer and defend his own case. Hailing from Bagalkot, he has been practising there. Despite all his efforts to prolong the case citing legal loopholes, he was convicted under Section 67 of the IT Act, according to CID sleuths.

As the police struggle to crack cybercrime cases owing to technological challenges, the CID’s feat offers hope.