Karnataka

IT professional jailed for no fault of his

BANGALORE: He was one among the thousands of youth engaged in the software sector here. His life revolved around his work at an Information Technology (IT) major, and his interest in cricket.

But Lakshman Kailash’s small world came crashing down when policemen from Pune came knocking on his doors and arrested him for a crime he never committed. He was taken to Pune, where he spent seven days in lock-up and 43 days in the Yerwada jail.

A private mobile phone operator had given his IP address to the Pune police following a complaint regarding a derogatory blog on Chatrapathi Shivaji on Orkut.

The real offenders have now been caught, and Mr. Kailash is out of prison. His employers, who stood by him through his ordeal, have relocated him to Chennai. He intends to carry on his fight to get compensation from the private mobile phone operator.

“It is their communication that led to my arrest and 50 days of incarceration,” he says.

During a chat with The Hindu on the High Court premises on Saturday, Mr. Kailash relived his “dark” days in jail. He had come to consult a lawyer for initiating action against the mobile phone operator.

Mr. Kailash said that on August 30 last, he had gone to sleep after watching a cricket match till 3 a.m. Five hours later, he was woken up by eight policemen from Pune, at his residence on Airport Road.

Even before he could gather his wits and ask them what wrong he had done, the police began firing questions at him and “searched” his computer. He was told that they received a communication from the Bangalore office of the mobile phone firm saying that the derogatory text on Orkut against Shivaji had come from his IP address.

Unable to comprehend what the police were talking about, he contacted his brother, who stayed near Hebbal. But the police refused to believe that he is innocent. They took him to the airport police station, and then to Pune by road.

Mr. Kailash said he reached Pune on September 1 and had to spend seven days in “filthy” lock-ups at two police stations there.

The bail application he filed on the eighth day was rejected by a local magistrate and he was sent to the Yerwada jail.

With bed bugs for company, sound sleep was out of the question in the jail, and it was difficult to have jail food, he said.

With 200 undertrial prisoners packed in one of the wards, Mr. Lakshman said that they had to sleep with hands on their chest.

He refrained from telling the inmates the reason for being jailed. The Pune police told him that he would land in trouble if he told others that he had made “derogatory” references to Shivaji.

What was more annoying was the fact that he was not even remotely connected to the “crime” for which he was picked up. Life in a high-security jail with hardened criminals was never easy, he said.

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