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Internet guru held for paedophilia

During the day, Ranjit Singh Sahota was a hi-tech titan -- a Silicon Valley trailblazer with $60 million in venture capital funding and a mission to drag the world of television into the Internet Age.

But late night, police are saying, the CEO and founder of MetaTV.com was pushing the envelope of online possibilities in a far more sinister way.

Sahota, 36, was busted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday for arranging to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online.

That 14-year-old turned out to be an FBI agent posing as a child in an elaborate cyber sting operation.

For the past year, the FBI has been on the trail of a Web-savvy paedophile known only as 'Ron' who molested a 12-year-old in a Sunnyvale Park last summer.

Federal investigators now believe Sahota is their man and have conducted a thorough search on his Fairfax home, his automobile and the Sausalito offices of MetaTV.com

"After executing the search warrants, our computer forensic experts believe the computers at his home and place of business were used to communicate with children for the purposes of engaging in sex," Andrew Black, a media relations officer for the FBI in San Francisco, told rediff.com

"We'd like to inform the public that there are dangerous individuals on the Internet who will look for opportunities to exploit children," he continued. "We don't want to alarm anyone, but we want to put these individuals on notice that the child they are communicating with might be an FBI agent."

Commenting on Sahota's status as an Internet guru, Black added: "It's unusual but not unique that someone successful in this field could be involved in this type of criminal activity."

Far from being a dotcom pariah, Sahota's company, MetaTV, is one of those rare ones that has bloomed even in the hi-tech recession. Just this April, it received another infusion of $28 million from confident investors, who place high hopes in its Web-based interactive TV software. Its high-profile list of strategic partners and investors includes Sony, the Ford Motor Company and Microsoft.

Clearly reeling from the shock of the allegations, the company released a terse press release dealing with Sahota's arrest.

"It is our understanding that Sahota was arrested on June 2 on allegations of personal activities unrelated to company operations," it read. "We cannot comment or speculate about his personal legal matters."

"The company's board of directors and major investors remain enthusiastic and committed to its continued success," the release added.

Mary Rockman, a press relations counsellor on hand to deal with the media bombardment on Monday, said MetaTV would not comment at this time outside of the press release. A photo of Sahota, previously available on the company's Web site, was also removed.

According to Black, Sahota was nabbed this weekend in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, where he was lured with the help of an undercover agent, who posed as a child in a series of e-mails.

For weeks, 'Ron' communicated with the agent in graphic sexual detail and set up the encounter in the park to have intercourse.

Last August, investigators say, the man seduced a 12-year-old girl he met in an Internet chat room. After talking to her via e-mail and telephone, 'Ron' arranged a rendezvous in a Sunnyvale park and then took the girl to a hotel, where he sexually abused and molested her.

For the past month, the FBI in San Francisco, in concert with the Sunnyvale police, have been scrutinizing Sahota as the chief suspect in last year's incident, Black said. He would have been arrested this weekend and the search warrants served even if he did not take the bait for the meeting at Golden Gate Park.

Sahota is being held at a federal prison in San Francisco.

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