STATE OF TAMIL NADU V.

SUHAS KATTI

Name of Case – State of Tamil Nadu V Suhas Katti

Citation – CC No. 4680 of 2004

Appellant – State of Tamil Nadu

Respondent – Suhas Katti

Bench – Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore

Factual Background of Case

The case centres around a woman who was repeatedly harassed by a man named Suahas
Katti, the accused. Suhas Katti was a friend of the victim and wanted to marry her. However,
she did not wish to do so and married someone else.

Later, she ended her marriage by obtaining a divorce and the accused once again tried to get
her to marry him, but she refused. Following the rejections, the accused began circulating her
mobile number online and created a fake email account under her name with the intention of
making people believe that she was soliciting for sex work. As a result of the accused’s
activities, the victim began receiving phone calls and was contacted about the same
repeatedly. This harassed her and outraged her modesty so she decided to file a complaint,
following which the accused was arrested under Sections 469 and 509 of the Indian Penal
Code, 1860 (IPC) and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).

Issue Raised

Whether the accused was liable for charges under Sections 469 and 509 of the IPC and
Section 67 of the IT Act?

Analysis of Law Applied

Section 67 of the IT Act deals with “punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene
material in electronic form”. The accused had sent obscene content involving the victim and
details of the victim in Yahoo Messenger groups and had forwarded promiscuous emails to
her which had been sent to a fake account created by him under the victim’s name.

Section 509 of the IPC deals with word, gesture or act which is intended to insult the modesty
of a woman. The accused was held liable for the same as his actions had led to the
misconception that the woman was soliciting and she was harassed for the same.
Section 469 of the IPC talks of forgery with the intention to harm the reputation of a person.
The accused had created a fake account under the victim’s name for the purpose of leading
people to believe that she was a sex worker. He was held liable under this Section.

The defense had argued that the emails were sent by the victim’s ex-husband and not by the
accused and the victim was trying to falsely blame the accused as she had wanted to marry
him but he rejected her proposal. However, the Court, considering a variety of evidences such
as the IP address of the harasser being the same as that of the accused, an eye-witness
statement against the accused by the owner of the cyber-café that the accused used, etc. did
not accept this defense.

Judgment

The Court ruled in favour of the victim and declared that under Section 67 of the Information
Technology Act, 2000, the accused was subject to rigorous imprisonment for a period of 2
years and a fine of Rs.4000 was imposed under the same Act. Under Section 509 of the
Indian Penal Code, 1860, the accused was sentenced to 1 year of simple imprisonment and a
fine for an amount of Rs.500. The accused was also sentenced to 2 years of rigorous
imprisonment with a fine of Rs.500 under Section 469 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, with
all three sentences running concurrently.

Conclusion

This was the first case where electronic evidence under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence
Act, 1872, was introduced in Court and the prime evidence was a certified copy of an
electronic document from the Yahoo platform produced by one who was not from a
government forensic lab.

It was also elaborated that “forgery” of an electronic document involved falsely signing
another’s name on it with the intention of the receiver to construe it as a message sent by that
person. The validity of Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act was also examined, in
addition to the appointment of a private person as an “expert”.

Following this, a partial ban on pornography was also introduced under Section 67 of the IT
Act. However, this later stirred controversy due to the ambiguity of the term “obscene”.

Nevertheless, it is undoubtable that the impact of this case on the society is immense as it
encourages people, and in particular, women, who have faced harassment over the virtual
medium to come forward with their stories and seek justice. It reinstates confidence in the
judicial system and that the people’s grievances will be heard and resolved.