The CBI has booked two residents of Uttar Pradesh in separate cases for allegedly circulating and selling child sexual abuse material through their Instagram accounts.
The first accused has been identified as Manish Patel, a resident of Mallawan in Hardoi, who had been publishing images of children depicting them in sexually explicit positions. He offered to sell such photographs at different rates.
The second accused was identified as Vishal Yadav, a resident of Jaunpur, who had also been selling the material via his Instagram account.
Earlier in July, a coordinated action involving the Interpol Victim Identification Task Force had led to the arrest of one person by the CBI in Goa, on the charge of sexually abusing children. The agency identified more than two dozen young victims in that case.
The images and videos, based on which the accused and the victims were identified, had originally been uncovered in Belgium and uploaded to the Interpol’s International Child Sexual Exploitation database by Europol. It helped the Australian officials provide additional inputs.
The agency found that the accused had sexually abused children in Goa and Maharashtra, recorded the acts on mobile phones, digital camera and other devices. He allegedly sold and circulated the photographs and video clips via darkweb, and was in contact with other paedophiles overseas via social media websites.
The CBI, in December last year, had arrested a resident of Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir for allegedly running an online racket that targeted minors living in the U.S. The accused named Niyaz Ahmed Mir used to upload pornographic videos and images over darkweb for sale.
In a similar operation in November 2020, the agency had arrested one Rambhawan, a resident of Chitrakoot in U.P., for allegedly sexually abusing about 50 minors. He also used to film the acts and sell them through darkweb. The accused worked as a Junior Engineer in the Irrigation Department.
