The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is in the process of sending requests to several countries seeking information under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) about those involved in the online sexual abuse of minors and circulation of child pornographic material via social media platforms. The requests comprise more than 100 references.
The CBI probe in about two dozen cases registered last November has resulted in the identification of more than 80 Indian accused persons, 16 of whom have been arrested and nine chargesheets filed so far.
The others are from countries like Pakistan (36), Canada (35), the United States (35), Bangladesh (31), Sri Lanka (30), Nigeria (28), Azerbaijan (27), Yemen (24), Malaysia (22), Saudi Arabia (19), Indonesia, (19), Egypt (21), United Arab Emirates (19), United Kingdom (17), South Africa (15), Nepal (15), Algeria (17), Iraq (14), Afghanistan (12), Kenya (12), and Oman (12).
The agency has gathered inputs related to over 50 groups with more than 5,000 offenders, involving the nationals of about 100 countries, also including Turkey, Poland, Sudan, South Korea, Uganda, Kuwait, Italy, Germany, Spain, Australia and Romania. Through the informal channel, via Interpol, it had earlier sought information from several countries on the syndicates generating and circulating the Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
“We have started getting responses from some countries. Now, requests through the formal channel under the MLATs are also being processed to be sent to different countries in order to get legally admissible evidence related to the cases being probed,” said an agency official, adding that one reference under an MLAT request could involve more than one suspect as part of a module.
In November 2021, the CBI had searched the premises of Indian suspects at 77 locations in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The accused were part of the groups that shared links, videos, pictures, texts, posts and hosting CSEM on social media groups and third-party storage/hosting platforms. Many of them received per-view payments for the videos and images.
Last week, taking up the issue of online child sexual abuse and exploitation, Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock had told the World Economic Forum in Davos that there was a huge spike in such cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said reporting by private industry and public hotlines, apart from law enforcement exchanges, had shown a consistently rising number of online child abuse images, with 2021 being the worst year on record.
According to the Interpol, the self-generated content where a child victim is groomed and coerced into creating images and video of their abuse, has grown significantly. Live-streaming of child sexual exploitation for payment has also seen an increase in recent years.
The Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database assists investigators across the world in identifying an average of seven child abuse victims every day. Since its creation, it has been instrumental in identifying and documenting over 12,500 offenders.
Based on inputs received through the Interpol, the CBI had earlier registered some cases against persons selling and circulating CSAM. In July 2021, the agency tracked down an accused in Goa and arrested him on the charge of exploiting over two dozen children in Goa and Maharashtra. He sold the material to others on darkweb.
As it turned out, the accused and his victims were identified using the images and videos initially detected in Belgium and uploaded to the Interpol’s ICSE database by Europol. It also helped the Australian authorities provide additional information in this regard.
The CBI had arrested another accused named Niyaz Ahmad Mir, in Jammu & Kashmir’s Srinagar in December 2020 for running an online racket that victimised minors living in the United States. He too uploaded pornographic images and videos on darkweb for sale.
