Mumbai:
Love and rejection in the Information Age can spawn freak tales of vendetta, especially when there is a spiritual guru involved.
The Mumbai police arrested self-styled spiritual guru Rahul Ramkumar Sachan from a non-descript village on the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan after a city-based business executive filed an FIR against him, accusing him of sending lewd e-mails to her and her employers.
He was booked under Sections 345 and 509 of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. He is in judicial custody.
Sachan's is a story of love in the Internet era gone awry. He fell for a 29-year-old executive from Taloja in 2008, during his stint in a renowned ashram in Pune, said investigating officer, Inspector Avinash Patil of the Taloja police station. "He was later known as Laptop Baba for his computer prowess," Patil said.
During investigations, cops learnt that Sachan was a native of Dilshad Garden, New Delhi. He came to settle in Pune in 1998 and started working at the ashram where, 10 years later, he was to meet the woman.
"Sachan approached the girl's family and expressed his desire to marry her. However, the wealthy family members turned down the proposal saying they could not have their daughter marry a spiritual guru," said Patil.
Dismayed, Sachan migrated to a remote hamlet, 4 BBA Gaon, on the Indo-Pak border, in early 2009, and founded an ashram under the banner of Sita Ram Kutia. The same year, one of his disciples at the ashram presented him with a laptop.
Sachan gained Internet access on the laptop with the help of a data card and soon acquired the nickname 'Laptop Baba' in the neighbouring villages, cops said, thanks to his knack for geeky things.
According to the FIR filed on March 12, Sachan began harassing the woman six months ago by sending her obscene e-mails. Initially the victim ignored the mails as personal enmity, but resorted to police action when Sachan hacked the website of the victim's company located at Taloja.
"After compromising the company's portal, he extracted e-mail ids of its top officials, and sent mails to the general manager and managing director, stating that their employee was involved in sexual relationships with 18 men.
Sachan even boasted of his own physical relationship with her in the mails, and claimed that one day, she was caught in a hotel in Pune in a compromising situation," Patil said.
Sleuths are surprised with his computer expertise, and are wondering where he acquired the know-how to hack websites. "We are investigating how he learned the technical skills required for hacking," said Patil.
When the victim, fed up with the smear tactic, registered the FIR, a police team headed by Inspector Patil was dispatched to Rajasthan to hunt down the accused.
After three days of search, on March 15, cops caught him, and he was brought to Mumbai on March 18. He was produced in court yesterday and was remanded in judicial custody.
"Sachan was famous as Laptop Baba in nearby areas. He is very savvy in computer skills. We are verifying if he had used the laptop for harassing other girls," said Patil.