According to the police, the accused, R Shashikiran, sent the e-mail from a computer in his Bangalore office.

Shashikiran, who has an architect’s degree, was released on a temporary bail on a Bangalore court’s order. Shashikiran will have to appear before the Esplanade Court on Wednesday to seek regular bail, which the Mumbai Police will oppose.

“We do not know what sort of relations they shared, but the complainant came forward to us and confirmed that the graphic images were her’s and genuine. This takes a lot of courage and rarely do we get such a complainant willing to go on record in such cases. Prior to the e-mail being sent, she had started suspecting that Shashikiran was married,” said Police Inspector Mukund G Pawar of the CCIC.

“The accused is an employee of Bharti Infotel Limited with its office at Bangalore and holds a degree in architecture. He is also extremely software savvy. The victim resides in Mumbai and works as an airhostess (for a private airline). Her job requires her to travel to various cities in the country, and during one such trip to Bangalore she met Shashikiran at a social function in mid-2006. The two became close friends, according to the girl. She met him regularly on other trips to Bangalore,” said Pawar.

According to the police, in August this year the airhostess received an anonymous e-mail containing nude and graphic images of her. She immediately contacted the CCIC and registered an official complaint.

“On receiving the complaint, we tracked the IP (internet protocol) address from which the e-mail was sent and it led us to the Bharti Infotel office in Bangalore. We contacted the complainant and asked her whether she knew anyone working there, and she provided us with the name of the accused,” said Pawar.

The CCIC then sent a team to Shashikiran’s Bangalore address to arrest him but he managed to give police the slip and also secured anticipatory bail from a court in Bangalore.

“The Bangalore court passed an order on November 6, directing Shashikiran to present himself before the CCIC in Mumbai in the next 15 days. Accompanied by his wife and lawyer, he presented himself at our office on Monday. As per the court’s order, we arrested him on Tuesday and released him on bail,” said Pawar.

According to the police, Shashikiran was booked on the charge of outraging the modesty of a woman (Section 509) under the Indian Penal Code and under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000 (for transmitting obscene content in electronic form).