Monday, June 16, 2003		Feature

A former executive of a leading cement company has been arrested for his involvement in a cybersex fraud case, blackmailing an Abu-Dhabi-based construction adviser and cheating him to the tune of Rs 96 lakhs by using fake e-mail addresses.

The accused, P Mitra, had sent the victim, Vinay Ninawe, an e-mail using a fake ID of one ‘Rita Basu’ from Mumbai. The e-mail comprised of some sexually explicit messages. ‘Rita,’ later also gave Ninawe the e-mail address of her ‘friend,’ ‘Ruchira Sengupta’ using a fake address.

Months later, ‘Rita’ invited Vinay to meet ‘her.’ However, when Vinay flew down, he found no one at the meeting point. He flew back but was surprised to find a mail from ‘Rita,’ who threatened to commit suicide for failing to meet ‘her.’ Vinay wrote back to ‘Rita’s’ friend, ‘Ruchira’ to stop her friend from taking the extreme step.

However, ‘Ruchira’ wrote back that ‘Rita’ had committed suicide in Kolkata and asked him money to be given to an advocate to fight the case and gave him the advocate’s e-mail address, which was fabricated. Vinay was asked to transfer the money in the accused’s account in a Mumbai-based bank, which he did. Vinay received another mail from the ‘Kolkata’ police, again sent by the accused, ‘implicating’ him in the suicide case. — PTI