Hyderabad: Telangana police are planning to approach the Interpol and the US Embassy for information on the antecedents of a US citizen who was arrested from Hyderabad for allegedly circulating child porn content online, and they will also probe if any Indians connived with him in the offence.
"We will write to the Interpol and also to the US Embassy asking them to share information with us on his background.
That has to be further verified," Telangana CID Inspector General of Police Soumya Mishra told PTI on Wednesday.
James Kirk Jones, 42, working with a multinational law firm in Hyderabad, was arrested by the Cyber Crime Wing of CID on January 16 from his residence at Madhapur, for allegedly downloading and uploading child porn videos and images.
Based on Interpol input of an IP address from which child porn contents were being shared from Hyderabad, the CID sleuths zeroed in on him and seized a laptop containing 29,288 items, including child porn videos and images.
They also found that there were 497 GigaTribe (a file-sharing site) profiles and 24 Twitter handlers/profiles, with whom he was connected, sharing child pornography.
"We have recovered huge material from his residence. Over 29,000 video clips, images of child porn stored in his laptop. An external hard disk and cell phone containing adult porn content was also seized," Mishra said, adding that with all this evidence they are confident of having a strong case.
Jones, who is unmarried, allegedly confessed that from an early age he developed the habit of watching child pornography and has been downloading, watching and sharing such material ever since, she said.
"He has confessed that he has been doing this from a long time. He was living in Hyderabad for the past five years and he must have been doing it. What all he has done we will further probe all the electronic evidence that we have got and find out how many people from India cooperated with him or have been conniving with him to see the entire range of the crime that has been committed," Mishra said.
Further investigation into his activities in India is in progress. The Twitter handles and GigaTribe profiles are further being probed to find out if any of the profiles belong to India, CID officials said.
"We want to know how many from India are also doing such things and if they are from Telangana, we will nab them. If any of them are from other parts of the country we will share information with police of the other states," they said.
"From our inquiries, he seems to be the lone operator from Hyderabad. He was doing it from his residence itself and not from the office. But online he was sharing with many people," they said.
"We will try to find who they were and if they are residents of India, necessary legal action will be initiated," they added.
"We are inquiring into that and finding out who they are also may be other nationals, we have to find out their actual addresses and trace them," the CID officials said.
A case under relevant sections of Information Technology Act has been slapped against the accused who has been sent in judicial remand and is lodged in Chanchalguda Central Prison in Hyderabad.
