HISAR: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has detained one Somnath of Haryana’s Hisar district on charges of rape, penetrative sexual assault, and production and dissemination of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) affecting several minor victims.
The CBI registered the case on May 29 after receiving reliable information that the accused person had been producing, viewing, downloading, possessing, sharing, and posting CSAM—showing children in sexually explicit acts. The objectionable content was kept in electronic form and disseminated through digital media.
The case is especially significant since it was detected suo motu by the CBI, without any previous complaint from the victims or their relatives. Exhibiting top-notch investigation skills and cyber forensic capabilities, the CBI tracked the CSAM content using INTERPOL’s International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database, which was also correlated with Cyber Tipline Reports received by Google and forwarded to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
By a comprehensive forensic investigation, the CBI localised the offences at Hisar and found several cases of sexual abuse of children.
On Tuesday, the CBI searched the house of Somnath, and the incriminating electronic gadgets were confiscated, and several minor victims were identified who were allegedly raped, sexually assaulted, threatened, and exploited to create pornographic content for many years.
Somnath was detained on Tuesday and is now in police custody. The CBI has confirmed that the probe is still under way, and attempts are being made to track any other victims or accomplices.
The case is a grim reminder of the risks of online exploitation and the need for aggressive, technology-savvy policing in the safeguarding of vulnerable children.