Ad agency owner held for sending abusive mails

HYDERABAD: An advertising agency owner was arrested on Friday for sending abusive and malicious mails to higher officials of a bank about one of their officers.

Police said the accused bore a grudge against the victim, as he was reportedly denied business deals of the bank.

The complainant in whose names abusive mails were sent is a senior manager of the Syndicate Bank regional office in Hyderabad.

The bank officer lodged a complaint with Cyber Crime police on March 23. In the complaint, he alleged that an unknown person was sending anonymous mails to officials of his corporate office at Bangalore and other regional offices since the past 18 months. The person levelled malicious allegations against the senior manager to tarnish his image among his colleagues and create differences with his close friends. The mails were sent from the address- bkhuy@ rediffmail.com to the higher officials.

During investigation, cyber crime sleuths narrowed down on Aditya Naveen Kumar of Vijayanagar Colony. Additional director-general of police (CID) SV Ramana Murthy in a release said Naveen Kumar owned an advertising agency.

In 2007, Naveen Kumar approached the senior manager for business. Naveen was then given orders like printing of brochures, flexi and vinyl glow-sign boards.

The contract continued till 2008 but from 2009, the bank management introduced a tender system for business orders, which meant Naveen Kumar could not get orders like earlier.

'Naveen Kumar bore grudge against the senior manager suspecting that the latter was responsible for the decrease in his business and decided to defame him,' the release said.

Naveen then created fictitious e-mail id and started sending mails to the Syndicate Bank head office and other higher officials alleging the senior manager was taking bribes from contractors and influencing officers in getting a transfer.

'An internal inquiry was conducted by the bank's vigilance department and all allegations found to be false.

This annoyed Naveen Kumar who sent mails to higher officials of the bank using foul and abusive language for not taking action against the manager,'' the release said.

Meanwhile, sleuths seized a Nokia E-63 mobile, two computer hard disks from Sai Internet Cafe at Chikkadpally from where Naveen Kumar accessed his mail and also a computer hard disk.

A case under Section 66A of the IT (Amendment) Act 2008 and Section 507 of IPC were registered against Naveen Kumar and he was produced before a court. After the court remanded him to judicial custody, he was shifted to Chanchalguda prison.