NEW DELHI: The Indian CBI has launched a worldwide probe in a childpornography case and approached 40 countries, seeking details of mobilephone owners who were part of a WhatsApp group, in which certain images andvideos were shared, officials said here.
The agency has approached the countries through Interpol, they said.
There were 234 members in the “child pornography group” comprising 66Indian numbers, 56 Pakistani, 29 from the US and the remaining from 37other countries.
The agency sent a reference to these countries through Interpol and some ofthem have shared information related to the users, they said, withoutgiving further details as the disclosure might adversely affect the ongoingprobe.
The CBI, on February 22, had claimed to have busted an international childabuse pornography racket operating through a WhatsApp group and arrestedits alleged administrator — Nikhil Verma — from Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh.
The CBI booked Verma, along with four of his accomplices, Nafees Reza andZahid of Delhi, Satyendra Om Prakash Chauhan of Mumbai and Adarsh of Noida.
They said all the accused were interrogated in connection with the case.
During the investigation, the agency has found that there are 119 membersof the group “KidsXXX”, who were getting these disturbing pictures andvideos, they said.
Besides India, Pakistan and the US, the members of the group also hailedfrom including China, New Zealand, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil, Kenya,Nigeria and Sri Lanka, the officials had said.
During the searches, the CBI seized mobile phones, laptops, hard discs andother digital devices, which were sent to a government laboratory inThiruvananthapuram for analysis, they said.
The officials said the question whether the racket was making the videoscould only be answered after the examination of the digital content at thelaboratory.
Verma, a commerce undergraduate whose father works in a jewellery shop, hasalready been arrested.
The agency had acted on its own intelligence gathered over nearly threemonths, the officials said.
According to the officials, it was a classic police investigation where thesleuths travelled to localities, from where IP addresses of computers andmobile phones used to upload and circulate child pornography videos, aheinous offence under the law.
A thorough background check and behavioural analysis were done by theagency, based on local inputs of the suspects, before proceeding againstthem, they added.
Accessing, producing, recording, uploading or circulating child abusevideos or pictures are serious offences under the Information TechnologyAct and attract a punishment of up to seven years and a fine of Rs 10 lakh.