41 arrested for sharing child abuse materials in Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a crackdown on those engaged in sharing child sex abuse materials via social media and encrypted websites, the Countering Child Sexual Exploration unit of the state police on Sunday conducted a state-wide raid and arrested 41 offenders.
The Sunday's raids marked the third phase of Operation P-Hunt- a dedicated exercise meant to purge child pornography- and as many as 465 places were subjected to searches. ADGP Manoj Abraham, nodal officer of the Cyberdome, said 339 cases were registered and 392 devices were seized during the raids.
Of the arrested, many were IT experts and some of them are suspected to be involved in child trafficking as encrypted chats suggesting this were recovered during the raids.
One of the frightening aspects unearthed during the raids was that the abuse materials of local children were widely being uploaded and shared through darknet sites and social media platforms. Such content of children ranging from six to 15 years were recovered during the raids.
The most number of arrests were made from Kannur. Six people were arrested from here.
Manoj Abraham said the arrests were made after the suspects were identified using special softwares and also with the help of tipline provided by the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The information collected were shared with the District Police Chiefs, who formed seperate teams comprising IT experts, and women personnel.