Probe finds Sri Lankans part of WhatsApp child-porn racket
An investigation has revealed that Sri Lankans are part of a WhatsApp child-porn racket.
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has busted a multi-national child-porn racket running through messaging platform WhatsApp and conducted raids in Delhi, Noida, Kannauj, and Mumbai, Times Now reported.
The agency has registered a case against members of the WhatsApp group for allegedly uploading and circulating child pornography videos. The WhatsApp group had 119 members.
Calling the activity a “global crime”, the CBI busted the racket on the basis of intelligence inputs. The members of the group — KidsXXX — included members of foreign countries like the US, China, Pakistan and Brazil, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and New Zealand, besides India.
Out of the five admins of the group, one has been arrested. The arrested man has been identified as Nikhil Verma, a resident of Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh. According to Deccan Chronicle, 20-year-old Verma is an unemployed commerce graduate.
As per The Hindu, other administrators of the WhatsApp group are Mumbai resident Satyendra Chauhan, Delhi’s Nafis Raza and Zahid, and Noida’s Adarsh.
A case has been filed against them under Section 67-B of the Information Technology Act and the provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The WhatsApp child pornography group had been active for about two years. The central agency is planning to write to the investigators of the foreign countries concerned, whose members are part of the group.
The minor victims in the videos and photos are, however, yet to be identified, a CBI spokesperson said.
The CBI on Tuesday also searched the premises of the group’s administrators in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and recovered computers, hard disks, phones and incriminating videos and photos of children being sexually abused. CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said they are investigating all angles in this case including a well-organised racket shooting children’s sexual abuse videos and selling them in the virtual world.
The CBI clarifies that sharing, seeing, uploading and downloading explicit videos pertaining to sexual activities is a crime in India. (Colombo Gazette)
