NEW YORK: An Indian descent cybersecurity expert has been charged in a US federal court with cyberstalking five people, including a deputy prosecutor and a police officer investigating him, and sending them threatening messages, according to Acting Attorney for the Western District of Washington Tessa Gorman. A grand jury, which is a citizens’ panel that determines if there is a prima facie case, indicted Sumit Garg on the cyberstalking charges on Wednesday, she said.
He was detained in a federal detention centre on Monday and will be produced before a judge on March 25. According to court documents, he also sent threatening emails to local judges with an implied threat of assassination in a list of judges and prosecutors killed.
He used email and social media platforms, including some under fake identities, to cause “reasonable fear of death and bodily harm” and “substantial emotional distress” to various people over a year, the documents revealed.
Garg’s problems started with a woman who shared a room in the house he lived in with his wife. He had allegedly looked at her diary and noted information about her health and previous relationship and later used them to intimidate and threaten her, according to the complaint.
Following an outburst by Garg, she moved out of the house and later he signed an agreement to not have contact with her but was later charged in a local court with cyberstalking the woman, her boyfriend and her uncle who is her lawyer, the complaint said.
In an alleged campaign of harassment, the complaint said he made death threats against the woman and rape threats against her and the lawyer’s wife, the complaint said.
He also threatened to mutilate the lawyer, the complaint said. Garg also allegedly sent emails under the identities of various people to create problems for the woman with her employer and others. Some of the threats were directed against the relatives of the victims.
According to the court documents, he had earlier told the woman that he suffered from “intermittent explosive disorder”, a psychological condition.
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