CBI arrested an accused involved in child sexual abuse in Maharashtra and Goa

New Delhi, July 21

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested an accused in an on-going investigation of sexual abuse of children.

The CBI stated that the accused was using electronic mail facility for connecting with other paedophiles outside the country. He would use cloud-based services for storing illegal child sexual abuse content; then, he would access free photo-sharing websites based in other countries and use social networking websites and platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp for connecting with individuals abroad for trading and sharing child sexual abuse material in huge quantity.

The CBI had registered a case on June 22 last year based on information provided by the Interpol that some accused persons were involved in child pornography.

The accused from Mumbai has done his diploma in Hotel Management. He was presently living in Goa where he was working as a chef. 

The CBI stated that at least 25 children, including boys and girls, had been victimised by the accused in eight to ten years.

As per the case details, accused recorded these acts by using his mobile phones, digital camera and other electronic devices etc. It was further alleged that these photographs and video films containing child sexual abuse material were published and transmitted by the accused persons using internet and the Dark Web.

During searches, a mobile phone, hard drive, pen drive and laptop allegedly used by the accused to access CSAM were recovered.

The agency zeroed in on the Goa accused while probing the Chitrakoot case of child sexual abuse.  A junior engineer from Chitrakoot had allegedly victimised about 50 children in the age group of 5-16 years in the districts of Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur.

According to the CBI, during the investigation of the Chitrakoot case they came across information about the accused from Goa. In November last year, the Online Child Sexual Abuse Unit of the CBI had arrested a junior engineer of the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department for alleged sexual exploitation of children for ten years; he would sell the videos and photographs of the nefarious acts on dark net to paedophiles across the globe.

The CBI suspects that it is a bigger racket and more person could be involved in this. The accused arrested from Goa was sent on judicial custody.