Thiruvananthapuram: In a continuous crackdown against child pornography, 41 people have been arrested in the recent past, police said Monday. Among those nabbed are youths working in good professional jobs and most of them IT savvy. However, it has been found that their passion was also indulging in child pornography. They have been arrested for allegedly sharing sexually explicit pictures and videos of children in 6-15 years age group.
Police said Monday that some of the youth were suspected to be involved in trafficking of children. They said that arrests were made during raids conducted at 596 locations across the state Sunday by the Counter Child Sexual Exploitation (CCSE) Unit.
This is the third round of the operation against child pornography code named ‘P-Hunt_20.3’ this year. Earlier two such similar raids were conducted in June and October in Kerala. Then a total of 88 people, several of them youngsters well versed in information technology, had been arrested.
Many groups were operating on ‘Telegram’ and ‘WhatsApp’ with more than 400 odd members. Each was identified and listed out during the latest action, police said. They added the COVID-19 lockdown has led to increase in digital usage. This has resulted in cyber crimes such as child pornography.
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“The raids were highly successful. As a part of the operation, the teams could seize 392 devices in 339 cases registered. Among the devices seized were mobile phones, tabs, modems, hard disks, memory cards, laptops, computers with graphic and illegal videos and pictures of children,” ADG, Manoj Abraham, said in the release issued by the police.
Abraham is also the Nodal Officer of Cyberdome. He said many of the videos and pictures appeared to be of local children, ranging in age group of 6-15.
“Based on the recovery of the devices…, 41 arrests were made and this includes youth working in good professional jobs and most of them are IT savvy. It is the main reason why they were using all kinds of encrypted handles to upload and download the material,” stated Abraham.
Police said the P-hunt was launched three years ago. So far more than 525 cases have been registered and over 428 accused arrested so far.
Under relevant law, viewing, distributing or storing of any child pornographic content is a criminal offense. It can attract imprisonment up to five years and a fine up to Rs 10 lakh.