AHMEDABAD: The CBI on Tuesday conducted searches at several private premises in Junagadh, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar districts of the state in connection with cases of child pornography. The searches had begun on Monday.
“Searches are being conducted at about 77 locations including Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh; Delhi; Jalaun, Mau, Varanasi, Noida, and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh; and Junagadh, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar in Gujarat,” said a CBI statement.
The statement said that searches were also being conducted in Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, and Tamil Nadu.
Places in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra were also being covered, the CBI said.
The CBI as a National Central Bureau (Interpol-India) is uniquely placed to coordinate such matters that have national and international ramifications, said the statement.
A special unit called ‘Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/ Investigation (OCSAE)’ was created in the CBI for matters pertaining to online child sexual abuse and exploitation. Apart from coordination with various agencies, the unit is undertaking investigations of various offences related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
In a nationwide, coordinated crackdown on crime related to online child sexual abuse material, the CBI registered 23 separate cases on Sunday against 83 accused on the allegations related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
It has been alleged that various syndicates of individuals based in different parts of India and foreign countries were circulating, storing, and viewing Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) through various social media platforms or groups.
The accused persons were disseminating child pornography material by sharing links, videos, pictures, texts, posts, and by hosting of such content on social media groups and platforms and third-party storage and hosting platforms. A number of electronic gadgets including mobiles and laptops have so far been recovered during the searches. It is revealed that some individuals were involved in trading CSEM material.
According to the initial information collected, there are more than 50 groups with over 5,000 offenders sharing child sexual abuse material. Many of these groups also have the involvement of foreign nationals. Nationals of about 100 countries spread across various continents may be involved.
