A 24-year-old man from Chennai has been arrested by the police for possessing and watching child sexual abuse material in the city. According to reports, the man had been indulging in the illegal activity over a period of two years. The arrest came following a tip from the National Crime Records Bureau regarding a phone that had been downloading illegal material.
According to the Times of India, S Harish from Ambattur was identified after his phone number matched with the record of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. Harish, who was finally nabbed on Tuesday, had used 500 IP addresses. The unemployed science graduate had reportedly watched the content at browsing centres.
According to The New Indian Express, Harish soon began downloading the child sexual abuse material onto his phone and watching it. The Ambattur All Women's police station booked Harish under Section 67(B) of the Information Technology Act (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and Section 14(1) (Punishment for using child for pornographic purposes) of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
In December last year, the Crime against Women and Children Wing in Tamil Nadu launched a crackdown on those illegally downloading child sexual abuse material on to their phones and computers.
In December, a 42-year-old air conditioner mechanic was arrested for allegedly possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material. The man had allegedly used multiple Facebook profiles to share the material, simply creating another ID even if the social media site suspended one account. On January 4, a 23-year-old man from Assam who worked in a tiles factory in Pollachi was arrested for possessing child sexual abuse material. A day later, a bus conductor from Avinashi in Tirupur district was arrested under the POCSO Act.