New Delhi, March 18 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday said that they have arrested a resident of Thanjavur district (Tamil Nadu) in connection with a case pertaining to creating, collecting, seeking, browsing, downloading, exchanging, distributing materials depicting children in sexually explicit act.
The accused is said to be pursuing Ph.D.
The CBI found Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images and videos from the INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database.
Through the analysis of the images using cyber forensic tools, location of incident was traced to Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. Analysis of videos revealed that a few victims were allegedly being sexually abused by male persons.
Searches were conducted at the premises of accused which led to recovery of incriminating electronic gadgets.
“The accused has been sexually abusing a child for last four years. It was further alleged that the accused forced victims to perform penetrative sexual acts on them as well on other minor children, including a minor victim girl; clicked photographs and recorded video; forced them to watch sexual acts with other adult person; threatened them with publishing the pictures/video on social media and for bringing more minor girls,” an official said.
It may be recalled that considering serious nature of this menace, CBI set up a specialised unit in 2020 to handle cases of online child sexual abuse material and joined INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Abuse Database (ICSE) in 2022. Further, 90th INTERPOL General Assembly hosted by India in New Delhi in 2022 passed an important resolution for supporting countries in their efforts to identify and investigate online child sexual exploitation.
The resolution recognised that the protection of children is a priority for all INTERPOL member countries. INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database (ICSE) is a key instrument in this international effort, enabling the collection & analysis of abuse material, and collaboration among specialised units towards the apprehension of offenders & identification of child victims.
It was agreed to strengthen cooperation regarding investigation of online child sexual exploitation and abuse offences. It is critical to have effective coordinated international response to this criminal activity, and to ensure the protection of children globally.
Delegation from India made an intervention while endorsing this resolution during the 90th INTERPOL General Assembly and detailed the importance of real-time information sharing and coordinated global action to combat the menace of online child sexual exploitation.
The important contributions being made by India towards ICSE database of INTERPOL in this regard were highlighted. Also operational outcomes of Operation CARBON and Operation MEGHCHAKRA launched by CBI for coordinated action on online child sexual exploitation were detailed.
