Authorities say a Ross man who arranged a meeting with a 12-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity was arrested by FBI agents when he went to meet her, according to his arrest papers.
An FBI agent had been posing as the girl in communications online for several months. Vikash Mishra, 40, of Ross, was taken into custody on Feb. 25 after going to a park to meet her.
Undercover agents said they set up an account on an online dating app in September posing as a 12-year-old girl and were first contacted by Mishra on Oct. 30 through a private message.
Investigators said Mishra use the name “Vik” and told the girl he was 30 and lived near Ross Park Mall. He began texting regularly with the girl after exchanging telephone numbers, the complaint said.
Agents were able to trace the telephone number back to Mishra and used photographs of himself that he sent to the girl to find a match with the one on his driver’s license, the complaint said.
In text messages on Jan. 10, the girl tells Mishra she will turn 13 this year and asks if he is “cool” with her age, according to the complaint.
Mishra asks if she is OK with his age and tells her that what they have been engaging in “…should be between you and me only. We will not let anyone know about each other.”
Mishra also tells the girl during the exchange that he wants to have “full fun” but that they will have to wait until she is 16 for that to happen, saying: “…That’s not legal dear and we should not do any illegal things.”
Mishra also reminds the girl to delete her chat history after their sessions, which continued regularly and included exchanges in which he describes the sexual activity he wanted to engage in with her.
Authorities said communication between the girl and Mishra stopped between Jan. 31 until he contacted her on Feb. 25.
During that final online exchange he made arrangements to pick her up at a park near what was supposedly her father’s house in Shaler, the complaint said.
But when Mishra showed up, agents arrested him.
Mishra admitted to agents that he went to the park to engage in sexual activity with the girl, but he told them it didn’t include intercourse, the complaint said.
