A man of Indian origin has been arrested by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigations for allegedly blackmailing a top US official over a sexual exploitation row.
Rajadata A Patkar, who according to his family was also the Japanese interpreter for the late former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, has been in the custody of the US police since March 3, 2007 for allegedly blackmailing Robert Awana, Secretary to the Governor of Hawai, over the latter's alleged sexual exploitation of his girlfriend Jullie Mae, a Philippine national.
The allegation against Rajadata was that while working in Tokyo he hacked the e-mail ID of his girlfriend from which he learnt of her alleged sexual exploitation by the US official.
Subsequently, it was alleged that Rajadata started blackmailing Awana and reportedly pocketed about $4000, a charge which has been denied by him.
In a habeas petition filed before the Supreme Court on Monday, Patkar's mother Snehalata Patkar sought the production of her son in India on the ground that his arrest by the US police on false charges was illegal and Rajadata being an Indian citizen can be tried only in India for the alleged offence.
A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and D K Jain however, rejected the petition on the reasoning that it cannot give any directions to the US administration.
