Masturbation charge against married engineer in Bergen online sting

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: An Edison man who authorities said masturbated online in front of someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl — actually a detective from the Bergen County prosecutor’s office — was arrested at his Edison home today.

Photo Credit: *Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office*

Jerry DeMarco

01/14/2013 8:42 p.m.

Vankata S. Mantrala, 27, is charged with attempting to transmit obscenity to a minor, attempted child endangerment and attempted criminal sexual contact.

A married electrical engineer, Mantrala was arrested by detectives of the Computer Crimes Task Force following sexually explicit conversations and the webcam incident “in front of the purported child,” Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said this afternoon.

He was being held on $25,000 bail and had to surrender his passport, pending a Superior Court appearance in Hackensack tomorrow morning, the prosecutor said.

MUGSHOT: Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office

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