Srinagar, Dec 22:  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday claimed to have arrested an accused, resident of Srinagar (J&K) in an on-going investigation of a case over the allegations of running online child sexual abuse racket from India.

“CBI had registered a case under section 67 B of IT Act and Sec. 14 of POCSO Act, 2012 against an accused, resident of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) on the allegations of running online child sexual abuse racket from India, targeting minors living in USA. It was further alleged that the accused uploaded the pornographic videos and images over the dark web for financial gains and also involved in direct communication with many minors in the USA. His wife is living in Washington, USA,” according to the statement issued by the agency.

It added that the accused was allegedly operating through his wife, who had agreed to be involved in a Master – Slave relationship with the accused and on his direction, she allegedly exploited multiple minors, recorded these abuses and electronically sent the same to him. It was also alleged that when the victims refused to follow his dictate, he shared these videos and images with their family members, the statement said.

According to the statement, the searches were conducted at the premises of the accused at Srinagar which led to recovery of incriminating digital evidence including 3 laptops, 5 mobiles, pen drives, hand written notes etc.

The arrested accused is being produced today before the Competent Court at Srinagar, it said, adding that CBI regularly coordinates with international law enforcement agencies to detect & investigate sexual abuse of minors, especially over the cyber space and also reaffirms its commitment towards promoting cooperation with US Law Enforcement Agencies in combating child sexual abuse in cyber space.

“Consistent and conscious efforts are being made to identify and detain criminals involved in sexual exploitation of minors.  CBI had recently traced and arrested an accused, resident of District Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh) on 16.11.2020 on the allegations of sexually abusing over 50 children in the Districts of Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh). During searches, huge material including mobile phones, laptops, web-camera, electronic storage devices, Pen Drives/Memory Cards, several sex toys, emails etc. were recovered,” the statement said.