TN: FTC judge convicts Dr Prakash, 3 others

Chennai, Feb 6: A Fast Track Court (FTC) here today convicted Ortho surgeon Dr Prakash and three others on the case relating to taking obscene pictures and webcasting them in the internet.

The fifth FTC judge R Radha found Dr Prakash and his associates-- Sarvanan, Vijayan and Asir --guilty under Section 506(part II), 367 and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

The court, however, acquitted Dr Prakash from two charges under Section 307 (attempt to murder) and 376 (rape) of the IPC. The fifth accused one Nixon was also acquitted from the case.

The court said it would pronounce the quantum of sentence tomorrow.

All the convicts pleaded before the court to impose lesser punishment to them.

Dr Prakash, who was arrested in Decemebr 2001 on charges of taking obscene photos of his women patients through hidden cameras and webcasting them on the internet through his US-based brother, was charged under various provisions of the IPC, Information Technology Act, Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

Dr Prakash, who has been in jail for more than six years was also detained under the Goondas Act for one year in 2002.

UNI