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Perverted Justice helps make sting in Leesburg

By Karen Cohilas - bio | email

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - An Alpharetta man is in the Lee County jail after driving to Leesburg to meet who he thought was a 13-year-old girl. Leesburg Police arrested the man after he showed up at McDonald's over the weekend.

The internet predator watchdog group Perverted Justice says since September, the man had explicit sexual conversations online with a person he believed to be barely a teenager. On Saturday, he showed up looking for sex.

30-year-old Mohit Malhotra apparently isn't shy. Two minutes after an online chat begins, the girl on the other end tells him she's 13. Three minutes later, he asked about her breasts, and the conversation only got more explicit from there.

On Saturday, he drove the three hours to Leesburg to meet "Rylee", but was in for quite a surprise when police officers were there to greet him instead.

The hours on the door say 8 to 5, Monday through Friday, but don't let that fool you. Leesburg police are always on call.

On Saturday, they busted a man who made the trip down from Alpharetta to meet a 13-year old girl. 

Sgt. James Vick said, "We're going to do anything and everything we can within our power to get these people off the streets and if they want to come to Leesburg, we've got a nice facility we can put them up in."

The Lee County Jail.  That's where 30-year old Mohit Malhotra is, charged with several sex crimes against a child.

Chief Charlie Moore said, "Perverted justice contacted us and said they was having some communication with a guy that thought he was talking to a 13 year old girl in Leesburg."

He set up a meeting on Halloween at the McDonald's. When he showed us, police were there. "He came in," said Vick, "walked through McDonald's, went back outside, got on the phone, at that time is when we made the arrest."

Police Chief Charlie Moore says he's glad that this man is no longer a threat to children. "I'm glad we got him off the streets and we just want people to know just 'cause we're a small town, they can't come to our city and do stuff like this." And the only action taken against perverted activity in his town, is justice.

Malhotra is an Indian national, in the United States on a work visa. Because of that, he must have a hearing before a Superior Court Judge before and if a bond will be set.

Malhotra works as a computer software technician. He's married with a 4-year-old child and another on the way.

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