E-Paper
Child sexual abuse case: JE targeted kids from deprived families, say CBI officials
LUCKNOW/KANPUR UP irrigation department junior engineer Ram Bhawan, who was arrested by the CBI from Banda on Monday for allegedly sexually abusing about 50 children,
LUCKNOW/KANPUR UP irrigation department junior engineer Ram Bhawan, who was arrested by the CBI from Banda on Monday for allegedly sexually abusing about 50 children, used to target children mainly from unprivileged families, said senior police and CBI officials.
The JE clicked photographs and made video clips while sexually abusing children, all aged between five and 16 years, and later sold the content on the dark net to other paedophiles across the globe, said CBI officials.
The CBI team had prepared a list of children who had been victimised by the JE in the past. The accused targeted children of street vendors, daily wagers, pavement dwellers and domestic helps who worked at his house, said a senior CBI official.
Sleuths were verifying the details of nearly 50 victims who were seen in photographs and videos recovered from Ram Bhawan. Of these, 11 children had been found, he said.
He said the children on the victims’ list were mainly from three districts of Uttar Pradesh -- Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur. The engineer, a native of Banda, was posted in adjoining Chitrakoot district and many of his relatives were from Hamirpur. The CBI team was trying to trace the victims to further record their statements and prepare a strong case against Ram Bhawan, said the official.
“During interrogation, the accused revealed that he targeted children who could easily be lured with money, electronic gadgets, eatables or any other thing they were deprived of. Ram Bhawan believed that he could easily handle the families, if the children shared these details with their kin,” the official stated while explaining modus operandi of the accused.
The official said the JE remained successful in his approach as no major complaint was made with the police in the past 10 years and he continued to sexually abuse children after luring them into his trap.
He said the engineer was about to be exposed at least twice in the past when the sexually abused children complained to their parents, but he managed things by paying some money to them.
The accused was a humble and shy person for his colleagues and others he met outside. He was staying in a two-room rented house in SDM colony of Chitrakoot for the past seven years. Prior to this, he lived in another rented house in Chitrakoot for around three years, added the official.
The official said Ram Bhawan would have continued to sexually abuse children had he not come on the radar of the CBI’s special unit ‘Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention/Investigation (OCSAE)’ constituted for matters pertaining to online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The accused came on the CBI radar after the location of uploading child pornography content was traced. The scrutiny of emails of the accused revealed that he was allegedly in constant touch with several individuals (Indian and foreign nationals) for the purpose of sharing child sexual abuse material, said the official.
The JE allegedly created and shared a huge quantity of child sexual abusive material, over the years, using various social media platforms and websites over dark net etc, he added.
