CBI arrests U.P. resident who sold child porn via darkweb

He is believed to have sold videos through the dark web to paedophiles in various countries.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested a person suspected to be involved, along with a few others, in the sexual abuse of children in different parts of Uttar Pradesh. The accused, it believes, filmed their acts and sold them through the dark web to paedophiles in various countries.

Rambhawan, a Junior Engineer in the Irrigation Department and a resident of Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh, is said to have gifted mobile phones and cash to several of his victims to buy their silence. In the past decade, he had allegedly targeted about 50 minors of the 5-16 age group. He used cloud storage services of meha-nz and box.com to store the illegal contents, it is alleged.

“A case was registered against him and other unknown persons, alleging their involvement in the sexual abuse of children in Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur and the surrounding areas,” said a CBI official.

Searches at the residence of the accused led to the seizure of ₹8 lakh in cash, eight mobile phones, laptops, web-camera, sex toys and electronic storage devices, including pen drives and memory cards.

A scrutiny of the emails of Rambhawan revealed that he was in constant touch with several individuals, both Indian and foreign nationals, for sharing the material. Over the years, he had created a large bank of photographs and video clips, and shared them on various social media platforms and secret websites, said the agency.

The agency has a special unit named “Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/ Investigation (OCSAE),” which gathers information and probes cases related to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.