Bail for eBay's India unit chief has been granted after an online auction of a sexual video resulted in the arrests of both the chief and teen who made the video. The two were arrested under India's 2000 Information Technology Act that bans "publishing, transmitting, or causing to publish any information in electronic form, which is obscene.”
In a case that provoked a small uproar, Avnish Bajaj was in judicial custody at Tihar Jail until December 24. The U.S. State Department has expressed outrage over the arrest especially because the India-born Bajaj is an American citizen.
The video in question featured the teen and his girlfriend engaged in oral sex. EBay pulled the video auction as soon as it learned what it contained, but a New Delhi judge reportedly first rejected bail for Bajaj, saying the "offense alleged" doesn't warrant bail. The case has provoked calls from Indian and U.S. tech interests for a review and possible rewrite of India's IT Act.
Later reporting December 21 indicated Bajaj was indeed granted bail after bail was first rejected for him the day after his arrest. He was also ordered to surrender his passport and not leave India without official permission.
"[S]ince Bajaj is a U.S. citizen, he is allowed to meet with his embassy staff between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. It's a facility we provide to all foreigners," an unidentified jail official told an Indian newspaper December 21.
Bajaj was arrested December 18 for trading in porn, while the 17-year-old student who made and auctioned the video will be prosecuted in a juvenile court. Bajaj was arrested after he traveled to answer questions about the auction incident.
The case may have provoked other ramifications, after a juvenile justice board principal magistrate ordered the editor, publisher, and a reporter for the Times of India to explain in court December 24 why they should not face punitive action, after the paper reputedly violated a court order and identified the school the teen attended in a story about the case.
The principal magistrate, Santosh Snehi Mann, ordered December 20 that nothing in print should lead to either the school's or the boy's identity being exposed publicly.
