Indian IT worker arrested for e-mail threats to president

A software professional working at Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies was arrested by the police in Chennai in south India after he was found to have sent threatening e-mail messages to the country's President, Pratibha Patil.

J. Sriram, a 24-year-old engineering graduate working as a programmer at Infosys' operation in Chennai, told police that he was generally dissatisfied with the political situation in the country, M. Sudhakar, Assistant Commissioner of Police of Chennai's Cyber Crime Cell said on Friday.

Sriram said that for all the political problems in the country, the politicians were responsible, Sudhakar said.

About 16 e-mail messages that he sent to the President on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 were more than expressions of disaffection with the political system in the country, and had very threatening content, Sudhakar said.

On a tip from the police in Delhi, who tracked down the IP address from which the e-mail messages were sent, Sriram was arrested and charged on a number of counts, including intimidation and use of obscene language.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.