CBI registers case against 100 members in child pornography WhatsApp group
CBI has arrested one of the administrators of a WhatsApp group circulating child pornography messages.
Nikhil Verma, one of the administrators of the WhatsApp group, has been arrested while a case has been registered against 5 group admins and nearly hundred members of the WhatsApp group. The group includes close to 200 members from various countries.
CBI registers case against 5 people (group admins) & 114 members of a WhatsApp group for circulating child pornography messages. CBI conducting searches at three locations in Delhi, UP & Maharashtra.
— ANI (@ANI) February 22, 2018
A CBI case under section 67-B of IT Act has been registered against the concerned individuals. The group has been circulating and sharing child pornographic material.
While searches were carried out in Delhi, Noida, Maharashtra and Kanauj (UP), administrators' properties like laptops, mobile phones, hard disks have been seized.
Members include people from India, Brazil, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, USA and China. Law enforcement agencies of the respective countries have been contacted.
According to the CBI, sharing, uploading and downloading explicit content online is a punishable offence in India.
The WhatsApp group is reported to be in existence for nearly a couple of years. One of the administrators, Nikhil Verma is identified as a 20-year-old commerce graduate from Kanauj, Uttar Pradesh.
Victim identification will be done at a later stage.