New Delhi:
The CBI has questioned some of the accused allegedly involved in the distribution of material pertaining to child sexual abuse on international WhatsApp groups, officials said on Wednesday.
The agency has booked seven persons in connection with the case from various parts of the country on the basis of information shared by German investigators who had arrested one person in Lubeck who was sentenced for five years for child sexual abuse and distribution of the material on WhatsApp groups.
The agency is questioning some of the accused in the case on Wednesday, they said.
The CBI had carried out searches at the residences of all the seven accused from where lot of digital storage devices were seized.
These devices will be sent for the forensic examination by the experts of the agency and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, they said.
During searches, the CBI had also recovered lot of porn material from one of the accused based in Chennai, they said.
The agency was informed by German Embassy January 31, 2019 about the arrest and conviction of Sasche Treppke in that country for involvement in sexual abuse of children and distribution of related material between November 24, 2015 and July 8, 2016, according to the FIR.
During their investigation, German sleuths searched the residence of Treppke and found huge data in the form of pictures and videos pertaining to child sexual abuse, officials said.
It also surfaced that Treppke was member of 29 WhatsApp groups, having a total of 483 participants, on which the sexual abuse content was shared. Seven “active” Indian numbers too were found to be part of these WhatsApp groups, they said.
After the preliminary inquiry, CBI managed to access the customer application forms and identity proofs submitted by these seven subscribers to establish their identities, they said.
The phone numbers are from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Trying to contact them failed as none were functioning, the official had said.
