BELLEVUE, Wash. — Praveen Kharb, a consultant at Ericsson Telecommunications in Bellevue, is under investigation for allegedly raping a child he met through an app called Kik.
The 13-year-old girl recently told detectives with the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin that the message "hi" simply showed up on her iPod last fall via the Kik app. She said she didn’t know who the sender was or how he got her Kik username. She told investigators that she soon learned the sender’s name was Praveen, and that he claimed to be in his early 20s. Police documents reveal that after months of corresponding through Kik, police documents reveal that Praveen sent the girl expensive gifts and then visited her home in Wausau, Wisconsin on March 22 when her parents weren’t home and allegedly raped her.
Kharb was arrested by Bellevue police officers at his home at the Residence Inn Marriott on 114th Avenue Southeast last Friday. He’s charged in King County District Court with being a fugitive from justice, but much more serious child-rape charges are pending in Wisconsin.
Tech security expert Alan Wallace told KIRO 7 that even an iPod can allow a potentially dangerous offender access to young children, right under parents' noses.
“Like any anonymous device, you never know who is on the other end,” Wallace said. “And kids are gullible.”
Kharb is a citizen of India working as a consultant for Ericsson Telecommunications. Tuesday, Kathy Egan, Ericsson’s vice president of media and public relations, released the following statement: "Ericsson just became aware of the situation. We are investigating and I can confirm that the concerned person is an Ericsson employee. However, I have no further information at this time. Ericsson is a socially responsible company and the alleged behavior is totally against our policy."
Andrew Munoz with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told KIRO 7 that if Kharb is charged and convicted of child rape, he would serve any prison time in Wisconsin; then the decision on whether to extradite him to India would begin.