In a major operation by the Kerala police targeting social media groups that share nude photos of children, police have now said that multiple members and admins were using phone numbers with area codes from Pakistan, Bangladesh and countries in the Gulf.
State police have arrested 12 persons in connection to the case in Kerala.
However, the investigating officer noted that the connection between the members in various countries is likely due to friendships created while people were staying in Gulf countries.
“The friendship would continue to social media groups, which would expand, after they returned to their home countries. This kind of companionship between people from different countries likely originated during their stay in Gulf countries. And since we have not monitored the groups from a national security perspective, details of the people from other countries have not been traced,” Starmon R Pillai, state High-Tech Crime Enquiry Cell Sub-Inspector, told TNM.
The Kerala cybercrime team recently arrested 12 persons for allegedly downloading and sharing nude photos of children. Known as ‘Operation P Hunt,’ the crackdown began last Friday and lasted into Saturday.
Operation P Hunt (‘P’ stands for pedophilia) was launched in January this year and this was the third phase of their operation. Since April, a total of 32 persons have been arrested in three operations.
On Telegram, the main groups that engaged in sharing content were named Neelakurinji, Alamban and Adholokam. Each had nearly 1.7 lakh members.
Many members left these groups soon after news of the Operation appeared on the media. Most of the groups were also quickly deleted.
The arrested have been charged under Section 67B of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which is the punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form.