NEW DELHI - Officials in India's technology industry expressed anger and concern over the jailing of the CEO of eBay's Indian subsidiary related to the online sale of a sex video. The U.S. State Department has also made inquiries about the case.
"The U.S. Embassy is following this case very closely. There is high level interest in Washington regarding the case," an embassy statement, issued over the weekend, said of the arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Baazee.com ? India's most popular shopping portal owned by San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc.
Bajaj, an Indian-born U.S. citizen, was arrested Friday related to the sale of pornographic images showing teenage classmates at a prominent New Delhi high school engaged in a sex act. Police said eight video compact discs depicting the acts were auctioned through Baazee.com in late November.
Bajaj was in court on Saturday, where the judge refused bail and sent him to jail for a week. A U.S. consular official also attended the court hearing, the U.S. Embassy statement said, but didn't elaborate.
Meanwhile, eBay ? which maintains the sale occurred without the knowledge of its officials ? said it is "outraged" by the police action and the court's refusal to grant bail. eBay spent $50 million in June to acquire Baazee.com.
"The video clip itself was not shown on the site; the seller offered to e-mail the clip to the buyer directly," an eBay statement said. "The listing violated Baazee.com's policies and user agreement and was removed from the site once it was discovered," it said.
The seller, an engineering student in an eastern Indian city, was arrested a week ago. Police are hunting the boy who filmed the act on his camera-fitted mobile phone and circulated it to his friends.
Bajaj was arrested after he voluntarily traveled to New Delhi to cooperate with the police investigating the case, eBay said, calling his arrest "unexpected and completely unwarranted."
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