The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, 17 November, arrested seven accused from Delhi, Dhenkanal, Noida, Jhansi, and Tirupati in an ongoing probe into a case of alleged online child sexual abuse and exploitation, an official press release stated.
The arrested, identified as Raman Gautam, Sathyender Mittal, Surendra Kumar Naik, Purushottam Jha, Nishant Jain, Jitendra Kumar, and T Mohan Krishna, will be produced before competent courts on Wednesday.
According to the investigation, the accused were allegedly sharing links containing child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) on websites such as https://koflink.com and https://pdisklink.com among others.
On 14 November, the CBI had registered 23 separate cases of online child sexual abuse and exploitation against 83 persons.
As per a CBI press release, these individuals, based in different parts of India and foreign countries, were indulging in circulating, storing, and viewing CSEM.
Further, it was alleged that they were spreading this material via links, videos, pictures, texts, posts, etc, and hosting such content on third-party platforms and social media pages.
Searches Conducted at 77 Locations
On Tuesday, the CBI undertook searches around 77 locations across 14 states, including Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh.
The searches led to the seizure of electronic gadgets from the premises.
Initial investigation has revealed the presence of over 50 groups having more than 5,000 national and international offenders sharing CSEM.
The press release stated, "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."
Investigation is still underway.
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