New Delhi: In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday busted a child pornography racket that was being run via a WhatsApp group with members drawn from various countries.
The pornographic content was being uploaded in the group named ‘KidsXXX’. This 199-member WhatsApp group was used to upload and download child pornography across the globe.
One of the accused Nikhil Verma, a commerce graduate from Kannauj, has been arrested in the case. Probe continues on the role of the other four Indian administrators: Satyendra Omprakash Chauhan from Kandivali, Mumbai; Nafis Reja and Zahid from Delhi; and Aadarsh from Noida.
CBI sources say, the five administrators of the group belonged to India and raids were conducted at their respective residences. During the raids, which took place in Delhi, Mumbai, Kannauj and Noida, laptops, tablets, hard disks and mobile phones were seized.
Sources say, the hardware seized from the residence of these administrators had sexually explicit videos pertaining to children. Police said the interrogation of the accused is expected to bring out more details.
CBI suspects that this group is much more than just another WhatsApp group. The wide reach of the group, given that the members are from all over the world, has made the investigators wonder whether this was some kind of a master group from where porn was accessed and then distributed.
The members of the group were from different parts of the world. Some of the members can be traced to United States of America, China, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Kenya, apart from India.
After receiving intelligence input, CBI neither joined the group undercover, nor did they put the app on surveillance, instead they targeted the IP addresses of the administrators and kept a watch over a period of time.
An official in the know of the investigation told News18, that though there are members in this group from a number of countries, they expect better cooperation with the international agencies in this case, given the global outrage against child porn.
The investigation is at a nascent stage but once these addresses are tracked, CBI is likely to move Interpol seeking details of these members. At that stage FBI might also be looped in for the probe on American soil.
US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation has a strong Violent Crimes Against Children Division, which looks at child sexual exploitation and online predators. These investigations involve all areas of the Internet and online services, including social networking venues, websites that post child pornography, Internet news groups, Internet relay chat channels, online groups and organizations, peer-to-peer file-sharing programs, bulletin board systems, and other online forums.
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