This is precisely what happened to 22-year-old IT professional Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid from Gurgaon, Haryana who was arrested by the Pune police for posting derogatory content about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi on an orkut community named — “I hate Sonia Gandhi”.

Interestingly, the person who formed this community is not guilty as per the law. The police said that hating Sonia Gandhi is a personal opinion of the person who formed the community and having a personal opinion about someone is not an offence as per the law.

Vaid was charged under section 292 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act because he created a profile and then posted content in vulgar language about Sonia Gandhi in the community.

Amol Bhokare, a Congress activist from Pune had lodged a complaint with Deccan Gymkhana police station against unknown persons in December 2007.

During investigations, the cyber crime cell of Pune police communicated with the Google company seeking details about the who formed this forum and circulated the obscene content. It was known that the vulgar message about Sonia Gandhi was circulated through an email address – Rahulvaidindia@gmail.com . The owner of the email id Rahul Vaid was traced to Chakarpur in Gurgaon city of Haryana.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Sunil Phulari dispatched a team of cyber crime cell comprising of assistant commissioner Netaji Shinde, assistant inspector Chandrakant Thakur, constables Navnath Walke and Sunil Shelke to Haryana.

The police team nabbed Vaid at his residence on Friday evening. The accused was brought to Pune by flight and produced before the Shivajinagar court on Saturday. Vaid has been remanded to police custody till May 21. If proved guilty, Vaid could be imprisoned for up to five years and may have to pay a fine up to Rs one lakh.

During interrogations, Vaid told the police that he posted the message because he hated Sonia Gandhi and was not aware that it would lead to a police case.