An obscene message about Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Orkut has landed an Indian man in prison. The message was allegedly posted on a community called "I hate Sonia Gandhi."

Rahul Krishnakumar Vaid, a 22 year-old IT consultant, was arrested after google handed over his personal data to police.

Vaid was arrested after a police raid on his house on May 16 and has been charged with breaking section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

If found guilty he faces a possible five years in prison as well as a fine.

A Congress activist from Pune, Amol Bhokare had lodged a complaint in December 2007, against the unknown person. According to the police the person who formed this community is not guilty as per the law, as hating anyone is a personal opinion but posting derogatory content in a vulgar language is indeed a crime.

The cyber crime cell of Pune then got in touch with Google. It was informed that the message about Sonia Gandhi was circulated from an email address [email protected]

A team was dispatched by the deputy commissioner of police to arrest the accused who had posted the messages against Sonia Gandhi. The accused, a commerce graduate, was produced before the court on May 17 in Pune. Vaid accepted that he had posted the messages. He has been remanded to police custody till May 21.

During interrogations, Rahul told the police that he hated Sonia Gandhi and so posted the message but had no idea that it would land him in jail.