4 arrested in Delhi police crackdown on child pornography

Deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell) Anyesh Roy said the cybercrime unit, through its operation “Masoom”, started last year as a crackdown against sexually offensive content against children, acted on the incident reports generated by the online social media and messaging platforms, which are being shared through international coordination mechanisms.

New Delhi: In its crackdown against circulation of child pornography on social media platforms, the Delhi Police have arrested five men following raids across Delhi on Saturday and Sunday. Senior officials said, these men used to allegedly receive the pornographic content on WhatsApp and through social media, and they circulated it by posting it on their own social media accounts.

Representational photo

In a similar crackdown last year, police had arrested 26 men.

Police have identified the arrested men as 26-year-old Ram Babu Kumar, Devender, 35, Abdul Rehman, 22, Mohammad Umar Alam, 22 and Santosh Kumar, 24. Police said, while Ram Babu is a school dropout and drives a cab, Umar Alam has completed his bachelor’s degree in business administration and sells mobile accessories online for a well-known e-commerce platform. Santosh is also a graduate and works as a delivery boy for a popular pizza chain, while both Devender and Abdul Rehman are school drop outs. Abdul is at present working as a data entry operator at a firm in Noida and Devender is aspiring to become a successful disc Jockey, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell) Anyesh Roy said the cybercrime unit, through its operation “Masoom”, started last year as a crackdown against sexually offensive content against children, acted on the incident reports generated by the online social media and messaging platforms, which are being shared through international coordination mechanisms.

“Our teams registered multiple cases on these reports and manhunt was launched to track the suspects indulging in circulation of child porn. Following the crackdown, the five men were arrested from different areas in Delhi. During interrogation, the five men told police that the pornographic material was either shared with them on WhatsApp or was shared with them on their social media profiles by some of their contacts. They said they used to then forward the same to their contacts further or posted on the internet through their own social media accounts,” Roy said.

The DCP said efforts are being made to track the source of the content that these men used to receive.