Washington, July 24 - A 30-year-old Indian engineer faces preliminary hearing Friday on charges of soliciting sex from a minor via the Internet while US authorities, citing his case, have warned parents to be on the watch for online predators.

Nityanand Gopalika, a native of Purnia in Bihar, India, and alumnus of DPS Bokaro and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, working for a leading American multinational organisation, was arrested with four others on charges of using the Internet to sexually proposition what they believed were 13- and 14-year-old girls in Pennsylvania.

Gopalika was preliminarily arraigned July 1 and lodged in the Butler County Jail in lieu of $15,000 cash bail, pending a preliminary hearing on July 24.

In all five cases, 'the defendants approached undercover agents in Internet chat rooms - rapidly moving the conversation to sexual topics, including graphic descriptions of the sex acts they wish to engage in,' Tom Corbett, the attorney general of Pennsylvania, said.

'Parents need to understand that online conversations can quickly escalate to include sexually graphic discussions or plans for face-to-face meetings, and that predators will travel as far as necessary if they believe they have found a vulnerable child,' he said.