Sonbhadra: The CBI has busted an online child pornography racket being run on Instagram allegedly by a UP-based engineer, officials said on Friday. The CBI has registered an FIR against Neeraj Yadav, a resident of Anpara in Sonbhadra, who has a BTech degree. He was working in the national capital before the lockdown, they said.
The CBI team raided the house of Neeraj last week and seized all the electronic devices and relevant documents. The accused was asked to appear before the court on September 21st post which he was taken into police custody. However, Neeraj's father has denied the allegations levelled against his son and ha appealed the central agency to probe into the matter to unearth the truth.
Yadav was running the online racket since 2019, advertising the content on Instagram. He shared the objectionable material with customers through WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and other social media platforms after receiving payment from them. He allegedly used to make money through online payments platforms for the child sexual abuse content and child pornography material, they said.
The agency has sent it for forensic analysis, they said "It was alleged that the accused was advertising on Instagram for the sale of objectionable material, including child pornographic material. "It was further alleged that the accused opened different accounts over cloud storage and file hosting service by using different email IDs and storing such objectionable material, including child pornography," CBI Spokesperson RK Gaur said.
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The officials said he has been questioned in detail and some more people are under the scanner. The agency had conducted searches at his residence in Sonbhadra district where his mobile phone was recovered, they said.
Unable to accept the fact that his son is involved in an online racket, Shankar Yadav said, "I am a poor man and own a pan shop. I have struggled a lot to make sure that my son gets a good education. He works in a private company as a supervisor. He is with the CBI officials. I don't believe that he can be involved in running child pornography racket. The truth must come out."
Yadav claimed that someone allegedly hacked Neerja's email and he is not involved in any such crime.
With PTI inputs
