Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Cyberdome has cracked down on a mafia uploading child pornography on social media sites during ‘Operation P-Hunt’ based on an alert from the Interpol.
ADGP south zone, Manoj Abraham, nodal officer of Cyberdome, said that raids were conducted on 84 places in 12 districts and 28 people were rounded up. After examining the devices, 25 cases were registered and 20 people were arrested. The teams seized the devices, including mobiles, laptops, and computers, with shocking videos and pictures of children. Many pictures are suspected to be of local girls also, and investigations were on, he said.
The raids were conducted in coordination with Interpol-Crimes Against Children Unit and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), who trained the state unit and provided digital resources to track down the suspects viewing, selling and distributing child porn.
The inquiries revealed that child pornography groups were operating on social media applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp and particularly Telegram, since it has strong encryption and offers greater anonymity. Many persons from the state were also operating on the internet, viewing and distributing such material. “We were able to identify many such groups and 84 people who were engaged in the large-scale distribution of child porn over social media and otherwise,” said Mr Abraham.
Simultaneous raids which started on Sunday morning were continuing under the direct supervision of SPs with assistance from shadow teams and a specially trained cyber team. The details of more people involved in circulating these images and videos were being collected.
“Strong action will be taken against the accused as per our policy of zero tolerance in these matters,” he said. As per law, viewing, distributing or storing of any child pornographic content is a criminal offence and can result in up to five years’ imprisonment and up to Rs 10-lakh fine.
