The Kerala Police cyber cell on Sunday arrested two youths on charges of circulating an e-mail, which contained a picture of a palatial mansion, wrongly attributed to CPM Politburo member and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.

The arrested were Manoj, employed in Nigeria, and Karthik, a student of Chartered Accountancy. Manoj was on leave in Kerala. A magistrate court granted them bail. They were booked as per Section 66 (A) of the amended IT Act of 2008, which said sending offensive messages through electronic means was punishable. This is the first criminal case registered in Kerala as per the amended Act, said cyber cell Dy SP G Sukumara Pillai.

Vijayan had last Monday lodged a complaint against the e-mail campaign. On inquiry, it was found that the house belonged to an NRI at Kunnamkulam in Thrissur district. Pillai said the police were yet to track the source of the mail. The duo were arrested on charges of forwarding the mail after adding captions which said, ‘Working class leader’s hut’ and ‘Lal Salaam comrade’. The mail had been forwarded to nearly three lakh addresses, he said, adding that the arrests would send a strong message to all those who spontaneously forward malevolent e-mails to others.