Date:19/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/19/stories/2004121907620100.htm

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Website chief remanded

By Our Staff Reporter

The Chief Executive Officer of baazee.com, Avnish Bajaj (centre), being produced at the Patiala House Courts in New Delhi on Saturday. — PTI

NEW DELHI, DEC. 18. Even as a city court today remanded Avnish Bajaj, Chief Executive Officer of the auction website, baazee.com to judicial custody, the police are yet to execute the arrest warrant on the boy who had allegedly made the video clipping and circulated it. Mr. Bajaj had been arrested by the Delhi police in connection with the multi-media messaging scandal involving two school students.

A police officer claimed that the warrant obtained by the police from the court on Friday had not been executed as they were studying the legal provisions related to the arrest of a juvenile. He, however, dismissed as speculation reports that the boy had left Delhi to avoid the warrant being served on him.

Earlier, Ravi Raj, a student of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, was the first person to be arrested in the case. Police alleged that he posted the video clip for sale on bazee.com on November 26. Over the next two days, eight persons bought the clipping online after which the deal was closed. The site managers had reportedly told the police that they had forgotten to close the particular window and that they had also warned Mr. Ravi to take the clip off the site.

However, police sources claimed that it was done only after a case was registered. A media report on December 6 highlighted that sleazy material was openly on sale through the site after which the case was registered.

The police have examined two of the buyers based in Delhi and decided not to take action against them as they had neither forwarded the clipping nor sold it to any other person. The other buyers, who are based outside Delhi, will be questioned. A couple of buyers are reported to be from Bangalore.

The website has expressed shock and surprise over Mr. Bajaj's arrest. In a statement issued on Friday, Deepa Thomas, Manager (Corporate Communications), baazee.com, said: "We have been working closely with the Delhi police and fully cooperating with them since they contacted us on December 9. In fact, Mr. Bajaj went to Delhi from our Mumbai office to aid the police in every way."

The statement said that a seller had put up a prohibited item in contravention of the user agreement and that it was taken off the site as soon as baazee.com was notified of it. Also, thousands of items were listed on the site and they were all independent entries. They were not verified or authenticated by the site managers.