The Central Bureau of Investigation has booked seven Indians for their alleged involvement in an international child sexual abuse material (referred to as child pornography) racket operating on WhatsApp. The ring was being investigated by the German police, who tipped off the CBI on the alleged involvement.
The seven men hail from different Indian cities. The men against whom the FIR has been registered by the CBI have been identified as Vinoth Kannan (Chennai), Zuhaib Ali (Delhi), Khozema H (Chennai), Rakesh Kumar (Faridabad), Abhishesk Kumar Tripathi (Ghaziabad), Joydeep Roy (Howrah) and Rahees (Jaipur).
“The above numbers were involved in WhatsApp group transmitting material depicting children in sexual explicit acts via electronic form (sic),” the CBI’s FIR says.
The case against them is registered under section 67 B of the Information Technology Act (publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form).
The FIR also reveals that the German police in Lubeck arrested Sasche Treppkae, a child sex offender, who was awarded five years imprisonment for child sexual abuse and disbursing child sexual abuse material.
While investigating Sasche, the German police found in his data carriers several photos and videos of child sexual abuse material. “It was also revealed that the accused was using a WhatsApp account using mobile number […] and was a member of 29 WhatsApp groups where material containing child sexual abuse was being shared," the FIR says.
The WhatsApp groups had 483 members from across the world, “out of which seven active members were found to be Indian,” the FIR adds.
Of the seven, Vinoth Kannan and Zuhaib Ali were reportedly members of three WhatsApp groups each, unlike the other five who were members of one group each.
The investigating agency carried out a preliminary enquiry as per the intel received from the German Embassy on January 31 for the offence period of November 24, 2015 and July 8, 2016. The CBI is said to have found that the allegations against the seven were genuine, and registered the FIR on September 30, 2019. The accused will reportedly be arrested soon.
Back in February 2018, the CBI had busted a child sexual abuse material racket which was also being run on WhatsApp and had 119 members from different countries including Sri Lankha, United States, Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil among others. The admin of the group was allegedly Uttar Pradesh-based Nikhil Verma, an unemployed 20-year-old B Com graduate. Other admins were identified as Satyendra Chauhan based in Mumbai; Delhi-based Nafis Raza and Zahid; and Adarsh from Noida.