San Jose-based eBay Inc. said it is 'outraged' at the arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the chief executive officer of the company's Baazee.com subsidiary in India.
In a statement, the company called the arrest 'unexpected, completely unwarranted and the result of misdirected energies by the New Delhi police,' Macworld.com reported on Tuesday.
eBay, which acquired Mumbai-based Baazee.com in August for about $50 million, said that it was working to secure the release of Bajaj as soon as possible.
Bajaj, an Indian-born US citizen, was arrested on December 17 over his site's listing of a sex video purportedly shot at a prominent New Delhi high school.
He was sent into judicial custody without bail until December 24, according to the statement.
Bajaj's arrest comes after he traveled to New Delhi to assist police with an investigation into the offering for sale on Baazee.com of a video that showed two New Delhi minors in a sexual act.
The video originated from a clip that was taken using an MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)-enabled phone, allegedly by one of the participants in the act.
The clip was apparently sent by the creator to friends via cell phone and recipients copied the content to video CDs and sold the discs, according to the police, who are still investigating the case.
Baazee.com argued last week that it was unaware of the clip's content and that the item had been removed as soon as it was found to be pornographic.
The statement issued on Sunday added that the video clip itself was not shown on the site, that the seller offered to e-mail the clip to buyers directly, and that the listing violated Baazee.com's policies and user agreement.
Bajaj, the statement added, has been closely cooperating with the New Delhi police in order to trace the seller in question and the information provided had allowed the police to locate and arrest the seller.
Baazee.com's operations in India have not been affected by the incident, the statement said.
