In a nationwide coordinated crackdown on crime related to online child sexual abuse material, the CBI’s special unit raided a house, a private hotel in Oachghat in Solan, Manali and Macloedganj in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh and in 110 different locations in India for the last 3 days .
CBI has already registered 23 separate cases on November 14 against 83 accused on the allegations related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation, said CBI release.
CBI said it was alleged that various syndicates of individuals based in different parts of India and foreign countries were indulging in circulating, storing and viewing Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) through various social media platforms and groups.
It was also alleged that persons were disseminating CSEM by way of sharing links, videos, pictures, texts, posts and hosting of such content on social media groups/platforms and third party storage and hosting platforms,saidCBI.
Searches were conducted on November 16 at around 77 locations including Tirupati, Kanekal (Andhra Pradesh); Delhi; KonchJalaun, Mau, Chandauli, Varansi, Ghazipur, Siddharthanagar, Moradabad, Noida, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh); Junagarh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar (Gujarat); Sangroor, Malerkotla, Hoshiarpur, Patiala (Punjab); Patna, Siwan (Bihar); Yamuna Nagar, Panipat, Sirsa, Hisar (Haryana); Bhadrak, Jajapur, Dhenkanal (Odisha); Tiruvalure, Coimbatore, Namkkal, Salem, Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu); Ajmer, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur (Rajasthan); Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh); Jalgaon, Salwad, Dhule (Maharashtra); Korba (Chhattisgarh) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh) across 14 States in the country at the premises of accused.
CBI recovered a number of electronic gadgets, mobiles, laptops during searches from the accused. It is revealed that some individuals were involved in trading of CSEM material.
As per initial information collected, there are more than 50 groups having more than 5000 offenders sharing child sexual abuse material. Many of these groups also have involvement of foreign nationals, CBI found.
It is initially learnt that there may be involvement of nationals of around 100 countries spread across various continents. CBI is coordinating with sister agencies through formal and informal channels. Searches and development of further leads is underway.
Globally, the importance of recognizing and combating online child sexual abuse has been acknowledged. Every year, a lot of children face abuse which becomes more horrific when online platforms are used.
It is a challenge for all stakeholders including law enforcement agencies. The cooperation amongst law enforcement agencies is paramount for tackling this menace.
CBI as a National Central Bureau (Interpol-India) is uniquely placed to coordinate such matters having national and international ramifications.
A Special Unit “Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/ Investigation (OCSAE)” was created in CBI for matters pertaining to online child sexual abuse and exploitation. Apart from coordination with various agencies, the unit is undertaking investigation of various offences relating to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
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