Lucknow, Aug 26 - A senior professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has lodged a complaint in Uttar Pradesh that his personal e-mail account was hacked, police said Wednesday.

M.C Bansal, who teaches in department of paper technology at IIT Roorkee's campus in Saharanpur, met senior police officials Tuesday evening and lodged the complaint.

'The e-mail issued by the hacker, purportedly on behalf of the professor, requests receivers of the mail for financial assistance,' district police chief Amit Chandra told IANS over telephone.

'We have constituted teams to probe the case. We are also consulting IT experts to know from where the mail was sent after hacking the professor's e-mail account,' he added.

According to police, the hacker claims the sender of the mail had to be hospitalised in Nigeria after he met with an accident.