Sharmila Bose, a 32-year-old city professional, deleted her Orkut account five years ago. The reason? She could not cope with the “filthy” scraps that were being posted on her page. “They were not links to any site, just very explicit messages meant for me. It was traumatic,” she recalls. If that wasn’t enough, two fellow professionals on her list of Orkut friends started an online fight over her. “They were using my account to call each other names and asking me whether I was in love with the other,” says Sharmila. Now on Facebook, she is selective in accepting friend requests and extra careful while posting something.

The roadside Romeo, the stalker, the groper on public transport and the lecherous senior in office have all moved online and taken sexual harassment along with them. And the trauma their victims suffer is no less in the virtual world.

Often the pain and suspicion take a toll on real-life relations. Like in the case of Moushumi Das, who, along with women colleagues at an NGO, had been receiving obscene emails at their office addresses.

“We started suspecting our male colleagues and the atmosphere in the office changed. This continued until police found out that an outsider was sending the emails,” she says.

Sometimes, the transition of real-life relationships to the virtual world is choppy, especially for women. Physical distance emboldens the abuser. As 18-year-old student Nandini Bose found out after uploading some pictures of her at a party on Facebook. “Nice b**bs,” posted a male classmate below a picture. He was someone she met almost every day and he had never made such a comment in front of her.

Easy anonymity, too, plays its part. Thirty-year-old Anuradha Mukherjee used to receive poems from an anonymous person. “There was no name but I am sure it was someone I knew. There was nothing overtly sexual but he wrote about my hair, skin, complexion, eyes, nose-ring… It was graphic, like he was touching me,” she recalls.

The abusers are often known to those they harass, according to joint commissioner (crime) Damayanti Sen. “We have seen a rise in cyber-crime cases in the past year or two. In 90 per cent of the cases, the abuser is known to the victim, whether it is a jilted lover or an ex-colleague,” she says.

Sen cites a recent case, where the lover of a married woman had posted video clips of their intimate moments on the Internet when the woman decided to go back to her husband. In most such cases, the joint commissioner says, the complainant only wants the objectionable matter removed from the Net. Very few want to pursue the matter and get the harasser punished.

“There is no legal definition of sexual harassment. Anything with sexual intent that the victim finds disturbing can be sexual harassment,” says criminal lawyer Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee, who practices in the high court. So posting links to pornographic sites or pictures, sending sexually explicit messages or posting pictures or videos of a person in a compromising position without permission are all potentially acts of sexual harassment. Even comments like “hot” and “sexy”, which have replaced “pretty” and “beautiful” on social networks, can be disturbing. “But we get almost no online sexual harassment cases. Such trials can be lengthy and often the abuser can get off on bail. Also, very few women want to go to court and face the defence lawyer’s questions,” says Chatterjee. Like in eve-teasing, cyber harassment is often neglected.

Ignorance of the law is another reason victims remain mum. In the US and Europe, online sexual harassment has been a topic of discussion and seminars for several years. But India has just about started talking about it. When explicit messages were posted in 33-year-old corporate communication professional Himani Chakraborty’s name on Facebook, she informed all her friends that her account had been hacked but did not consider going to the cops. “Maybe if the problem had continued, I would have,” she says.

Not that there are many deterrent laws. The Information Technology Act 2000 As Amended By 2008 came into effect in 2009. Before that there was no specific law for cyber crime. Section 66E of the act says: “Whoever, intentionally or knowingly captures, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of any person without his or her consent, under circumstances violating the privacy of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine not exceeding two lakh rupees, or with both.”

Parts of Section 67 of the IT act deal with “punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form” and “punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form”.

But sexually explicit messages, which is the most common and one of the most damaging tools of harassment, is not clearly mentioned, says Chatterjee.

Radha Chatterjee, a city professional, was shocked when a work contact got in touch with her over Facebook to ask if she wanted to be his “f**k buddy”. “I kept wondering what had made him think that he could ask such a question,” says the 28-year-old.

Section 354 of the IPC mentions “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty”. There are also sections on sexual harassment at the workplace and misconduct by a person in public. But even the lawyers are unsure of whether public can mean a public social network or stalking online.

Which happens. “A few years back, a guy sent me a friend request with a message saying he had seen my posts on some friend’s wall and would like to be my friend. I didn’t accept his request but he continued to message me, talking in detail about what I had said to so and so on such and such occasion. It was creepy,” says 30-year-old Pinky Bose.

The high court lawyer explains: “Cyber crime is such a new field that the laws are still being interpreted. But often the abuser is more tech savvy than the police or the lawyers.”

The reach of social networks is a disadvantage in some cases. If the offensive material uploaded has been passed on, it is difficult to check the damage. Three years back, 23-year-old Smriti Dasgupta started getting calls from unknown men on her cellphone. “One of the callers said he got my number from Orkut. Someone had created a fake profile with some name, someone else’s picture and my mobile number. I filed a general diary at the local police station but it didn’t help,” she says.

There is no way one can protect oneself from such a random assault but author and blogger Arnab Ray feels there is no alternative to being careful. “The trick is not to divulge too much about oneself or one’s family and private life on an online forum,” he says.

And the websites themselves, feels cyber crusader Vinay Rai, should be more responsible. “Fake accounts on Facebook are so common. The site can always provide a clue to the real identity of the person by saying what email id was used to create the profile,” he says.

Facebook, does have an option of “reporting” an user or a photo if someone thinks that the profile is fake or the person is harassing someone or the content is objectionable. But for those smarting from an obscene overture, reporting to a nameless entity without knowing what action will be taken is often of little comfort.