The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a research scholar whose name was not released to the media, was allegedly forcing the victims to watch sexual acts with other adult persons, threatening them with publishing the pictures/video on social media and for bringing more minor girls.

Hyderabad: Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a research scholar pursuing his PhD aged about 35 years on charges of child sexual abuse in Thanjavur of Tamil Nadu, according to a bureau press release here on Sunday.

The 35-year-old research scholar, whose name was not released to the media, was alleged to have been sexually abusing a child for last four years. Charges against the arrested man included forcing victims to perform penetrative sexual acts on them as well on other minor children, including a minor victim girl, clicking photographs and recording video; forcing the victims to watch sexual acts with other adult persons, threatening them with publishing the pictures/video on social media and for bringing more minor girls.

The arrest came after a case was registered on the allegations of creating, collecting, seeking, browsing, downloading, exchanging/distributing material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form, the press release added.

The CBI officials found Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images and videos from the INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database. The analysis of the images using cyber forensic tools, location of incident was traced to Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. Analysis of videos revealed that a few victims were allegedly being sexually abused by male persons. Searches were conducted at the premises of accused which led to recovery of incriminating electronic gadgets.

The CBI had set up a specialised unit in 2020 to handle cases of Online Child Sexual Abuse Material and joined INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Abuse Database (ICSE) in 2022. Further, 90th INTERPOL General Assembly hosted by India at New Delhi in 2022 passed an important resolution for supporting countries in their efforts to identify and investigate online child sexual exploitation.