5 arrested in Delhi for circulating child porn

In its crackdown against the circulation of child pornography on social media platforms under operation 'MASOOM', Delhi Police's Cyber Crime Unit (CyPAD) arrested five persons in January 2021.

New Delhi: In its crackdown against the circulation of child pornography on social media platforms under operation 'MASOOM', Delhi Police's Cyber Crime Unit (CyPAD) has arrested five persons in January 2021.

A total of 26 online predators were arrested in 2020 for posting or transmitting child pornographic content, according to Delhi Police.

Initial inputs about the transmission of such offensive content received from online platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc., which continuously monitor the web for such content using artificial intelligence tools.

Thus, acting on the incident reports generated by the online social media and messaging platforms, which are being shared through international coordination mechanisms, the CyPAD Unit took immediate cognizance of such instances and several teams were formed to identify the persons as reported against.

Under Operation MASOOM, multiple cases have been registered on these reports of serious nature and a simultaneous manhunt has been launched to trace the accused persons. Five persons have been arrested in the latest crackdown under Operation MASOOM.

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On interrogation, it has been revealed that the said offensive content was received by the accused persons on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. and even on WhatsApp chats and was then uploaded or forwarded to other individuals by them.

The accused have allegedly disclosed that the said offensive material was either shared with them on WhatsApp or was posted on the social media profile of someone known to them, from where they either forwarded the same to someone else or copied and posted on their own social media accounts. All the accused persons have been arrested under appropriate sections of law and sent to Judicial Custody.

The relevant devices and SIM cards of accused have been seized. Further investigation is underway.

(ANI)