Odisha man arrested by CBI over Child Sexual Exploitation Material circulation

Bhubaneswar: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today arrested Surendra Nayak of Jubilee Town Colony Sahi in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district for allegedly circulating, storing and viewing Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) through various social media platforms/ groups.

He was forwarded to the Special CBI Court here after the arrest.

Officials of the central agency had yesterday interrogated Nayak at his house over his alleged involvement in child pornography.

Tension ran high during the incident as residents of the locality reportedly gheraoed and heckled the CBI officers. Later, local police rushed to the spot and rescued the CBI officials.

Speaking to media persons, Nayak said he had joined a group named Desi MMS two months ago and used to share video links in various social media groups. In return, he had received $21(approximately Rs 2,000).

“The CBI officials today asked me about the number of members in the group and took away my mobile phone,” Nayak said.

In a nationwide coordinated crackdown on crime related to online child sexual abuse material, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered 23 separate cases on November 14 against 83 accused on the allegations related to online child sexual abuse & exploitation.

It was alleged that various syndicates of individuals based in different parts of India and foreign countries were indulging in circulating, storing & viewing Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) through various social media platforms/ groups.

It was also alleged that persons were disseminating CSEM by way of sharing links, videos, pictures, texts, posts and hosting of such content on social media groups/ platforms and third party storage/ hosting platforms.

Searches were conducted at around 77 locations including Tirupati, Kanekal (Andhra Pradesh); Delhi; Konch Jalaun, Mau, Chandauli, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Siddharthanagar, Moradabad, Noida, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh); Junagarh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar (Gujarat); Sangrur, Malerkotla, Hoshiarpur, Patiala (Punjab); Patna, Siwan (Bihar); Yamuna Nagar, Panipat, Sirsa, Hisar (Haryana); Bhadrak, Jajapur, Dhenkanal (Odisha); Tiruvalure, Coimbatore, Namakkal, Salem, Tiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu); Ajmer, Jaipur, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur (Rajasthan); Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh); Jalgaon, Salwad, Dhule (Maharashtra); Korba (Chhattisgarh) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh) across 14 States in the country at the premises of accused.

As per initial information collected, there are more than 50 groups having more than 5000 offenders sharing child sexual abuse material. Many of these groups also have involvement of foreign nationals. It is initially learnt that there may be involvement of nationals of around 100 countries spread across various continents. CBI is coordinating with sister agencies through formal and informal channels.