That the case involves child porn is disgusting in itself but the fact that it was being run by a 14-year-old Delhi-based boy has now left law enforcers worried that the culprit might benefit from provisions of the POSCO Act.
In a major crackdown, the Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Cell busted a child pornography racket run allegedly by the teen from Delhi. More than 3 TB of video clips have been recovered. Some links have been sealed by writing to server operators.
Sources said cracking the network was difficult for the cyber cell as it was run on the dark net. “We identified a students’ group on WhatsApp in which child pornography was being circulated, and got our men to infiltrate the group in the guise of students through an informer.
Our men laid a decoy and found out that a 14-year-old boy named Purav (name changed), an expert in software, was sharing the video clips with a man in Gujarat.
“This man further circulated the obscene videos, in which girls from the age of 2 years to 12 years were subjected to sexual abuse, in return of money on the dark net. Individuals used to buy the video clips at Rs 150 per 5 MB,” stated DC, Police (cyber cell), Ajit Rajian.
Once Purav was identified, the team went to Delhi. “The parents were found to be unaware of what their son was up to. His e-wallet holds crypto currency worth Rs 3 lakh. Since he is a juvenile, we could not arrest him. And even if we did, the result would come to a naught. We then convinced the boy to help us and got his statement recorded before a magistrate under section 164 of CrPC. He has named a couple of persons in Gujarat who were part of the racket. We are going to pick them up soon,” added the cop.
Cyber cell sources said that while 80% of the videos seemed to have been shot in western countries, 20% of them were in Bangla and Kannada languages. “This gives us a reason to believe that they were shot in India,” said an official.
Most of the videos originated from foreign countries. “This boy from Delhi was a big-time peddler, directly in contact with the senders and the agents. He sourced the videos on the dark net and then, would share them with two agents in Gujarat after charging a certain amount in cryptocurrency. They, in turn, sold it to thousands of individuals at Rs 150 per 5 MB of video,” DCP Ajit Rajian briefed.
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