Atlanta man arrested at Albany motel in Internet Sex sting - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Atlanta man arrested at Albany motel in Internet Sex sting

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By Jim Wallace - bio | email

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - Dougherty County Sheriff's investigators arrested a man they say drove three hours to Albany to have sex with an underage girl.

The man thought he was chatting online with a 14-year old girl.

He made a date to come from Atlanta to meet her.

Turns out he was actually chatting with a group called Perverted Justice that tracks online predators for law enforcers.

31 year old Sivakumar Jeraraman is in the Dougherty County Jail on $5,000 bond, after he was arrested in an Internet Sting operation.

Perverted Justice intercepted on-line messages from the Atlanta computer programmer, starting January 11th, making him believe he was chatting on MySpace with a 14 year old girl.

Captain Craig Dodd said "She had already told him repeatedly during their conversations that she was in middle school, and she was 14 years old. He continued the conversation and became much more sexually explicit as the conversations went on."

Lt. Anita Allen, who will head the Sheriff's new Internet Child Crime's Division, said Friday Jeraraman set up a meeting for Saturday.

 Lt. Anita Allen said "The defendant, Sivakumar, made the reservation at a local motel for 2-07-09. The defendant drove from Atlanta Georgia to Albany 2-07-09, and arrived at a local motel at 4:45 hours, to meet with the 14 year old female."

But it was Sheriff's Investigators who waiting on him, and arrested him.

Dodd said "When he opened the door when we knocked and he saw a rather large law enforcement officer instead of a 14 year old girl, he looked like he was rather shocked."

Jeraraman is an Indian national in the United States on a work visa. He was working as a computer programmer, has a Master's Degree and a wife and young daughter back in India. Sheriff Sproul is having his Department join ICAC, the Internet Crimes against Children crime network, to fight sexual predators.

Sproul said "It scares me to know there is so much of it out there Jim. People don't realize there are hundreds or thousands of people on line every moment trying to abduct your child."

Investigators say there is no doubt Jeraraman would have been a danger if a 14 year old child had met him, and that is why Sheriff Sproul is beefing up his Department to battle Internet Sexual Predators.

Federal authorities have been contacted about Jeraraman's felony arrest.

Sheriff Sproul says he'll likely be deported with no chance to return to the United States.

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