Jhansi court sentences man to five years in jail in child pornography case

According to the investigation, the accused procured and distributed child pornographic material through several social media groups.

: A special POCSO court in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district has sentenced a 32-year-old man to five years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹1.5 lakh in a child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) case investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The accused remained in jail for a long period before being granted bail about a year ago. His earlier bail plea had also been rejected by the Supreme Court. (For representation only)

The judgment was delivered on Friday by additional district and sessions judge (Rape and POCSO) Kaniska Singh. According to a press release issued by the CBI, the convict, identified as Ramji, a resident of Ramganj under the Eirach police station area, was arrested by the agency on November 14, 2021.

The agency said the case was registered on the basis of source information alleging that a syndicate operating from different parts of India and abroad was involved in circulating, storing and viewing child sexual exploitation material through various social media platforms and online groups.

According to the investigation, the accused procured and distributed child pornographic material through several social media groups. The press release stated that he allegedly disseminated such content by sharing links, videos, photographs, posts and text messages and by hosting the material on social media groups and third-party storage platforms.

During investigation, the CBI also found that the accused had created multiple Gmail IDs allegedly used to operate several accounts on Pdisk, a video-hosting platform similar to YouTube, under different usernames. According to the agency, several of these accounts contained electronic material depicting children in sexually explicit acts. CBI ACB Ghaziabad officer Ajay Singh Gehelot said the accused allegedly earned around ₹33,000 through the illegal trade, with payments transferred to his account in dollars.

Additional district government counsel Tej Singh Gaur said the accused was booked under sections 120B and 67B of the IT Act along with Section 15(3) of the POCSO Act. The CBI said it filed the chargesheet in the case on June 30, 2022, while a supplementary chargesheet was filed on December 7, 2022. Charges were framed against the accused on April 20, 2023. The accused remained in jail for a long period before being granted bail about a year ago. His earlier bail plea had also been rejected by the Supreme Court.

Calling the offence serious and socially disturbing, the court awarded the maximum punishment under the relevant sections and imposed a fine of ₹1.5 lakh on the convict after completion of the trial.