In furtherance of its nationwide investigation initiated earlier this week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested seven alleged accused for sharing child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) online.
These arrests were made from Delhi, Dhenkanal (Odisha), Noida (UP), Jhansi (UP) and Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh). The CBI, during the investigation, found that the accused were allegedly sharing the links of CSEM videos on certain websites and trading in the same. While undertaking one such arrest in Dhenkanal, the CBI team was assaulted by the locals and had to be rescued by the local police.
On 14 November (Children’s Day), the CBI had registered 23 separate cases against 83 accused on the allegations that they were indulging in online child sexual abuse and exploitation. It was alleged that various syndicates of individuals based in different parts of India and foreign countries were indulging in circulating, storing and viewing CSEM through various social media platforms/groups. It was also alleged that persons were disseminating CSEM by way of sharing links, videos, pictures, texts, posts and hosting of such content on social media groups/platforms and third party storage/hosting platforms.
The agency had subsequently carried out searches at around 77 locations, including Tirupati, Kanekal (Andhra Pradesh); Delhi; Konch Jalaun, Mau, Chandauli, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Siddharthanagar, Moradabad, Noida, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh); Junagarh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar (Gujarat); Sangroor, Malerkotla, Hoshiarpur, Patiala (Punjab); Patna, Siwan (Bihar); Yamuna Nagar, Panipat, Sirsa, Hisar (Haryana); Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal (Odisha); Tiruvalure, Coimbatore, Namkkal, Salem, Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu); Ajmer, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur (Rajasthan); Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh); Jalgaon, Salwad, Dhule (Maharashtra); Korba (Chhattisgarh) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh) across 14 states in the country at the premises of accused which led to recovery of electronic gadgets/mobiles/laptops etc.
The CBI sleuths, in their initial investigation, found that more than 50 groups (on various mobile messaging apps) having more than 5,000 offenders, were sharing child sexual abuse material. Many of these groups also had foreign nationals. It is believed that there may be involvement of nationals of around 100 countries spread across various continents in this racket. The CBI has roped in other agencies for their help in tracking and arresting the other accused.