Man convicted for 20 years under Section 67B of Information Technology Act

MP | 24 June 2023 | Cooch Behar/ Darjeeling: The Mekhliganj Additional District and Sessions Judge Court on Friday convicted a 22 year old man to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment in a POCSO case that involved the Information Technology Act. 

This is believed to be the first conviction in the state under section 67B of Information Technology Act. Judge Hiranmoy Sanyal sentenced Bijoy Roy to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 1 lakh 30 thousand. 

“The accused is convicted under section 385/506/509 IPC, Section 6 of POCSO and 66E, 67, 67B of the Information Technology Act. This could be West Bengal’s first case convicted under section 67B of Information Technology Act and first conviction on cybercrime case in North Bengal” said Bivas Chatterjee, Special Public Prosecutor, talking to the Millennium Post. 

Section 66E, Section 67A, and Section 67B of the Information Technology Act of India pertain to specific offenses related to the misuse of electronic communication and digital content.

The accused had established a relationship with the victim, a minor and had forcefully intoxicated her on a visit to her house, when there was no one around. 

He had then snapped nude pictures of her on his mobile phone and when she came to her senses had blackmailed her into consenting to some more pictures. 

He then started blackmailing her on multiple occasions demanding money and also forced her to have sex, though she was a minor. 

When she tried to avoid him, he uploaded some nude pictures on social media. When her marriage was fixed and wedding cards were distributed, Roy approached the would-be groom and sent him some of the pictures. 

The marriage was called off which nearly drove the victim to commit suicide. 

Her mother managed to rescue her. On 13.11.2021 the victim’s father lodged a complaint at the police station. Charge-sheet, along with supplementary charge-sheets, was filed against the accused. 

The prosecution has called upon nine witnesses to testify. An examiner of electronic evidence from the CFSL, Pune came at Mekhliganj to depose. 

“We proved the forensic trail that pictures were captured by the mobile of the accused which was seized from his possession and that those files were transmitted from the sent folder of WhatsApp account of the accused to the received folder of the recipients to whom those pictures were transmitted. 

The mobile phones of accused and two witnesses whom he had transmitted those nude pictures to were sent to CFSL, Pune. The cyber forensic expert has clearly shown the path of the transmission between two different folders of WhatsApp and thus technically proved the transmission of the pictures containing sexually explicit pictures, thus Section 67B of Information Technology Act” added Chatterjee. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/man-convicted-for-20-years-under-section-67b-of-information-technology-act-523242