Chennai: The Tamilnadu police, who were in the news for ‘preparing lists of those who spread pornography on the internet’, have made their first arrest in the case. They have picked up a man who shared sex videos involving children on social media in Trichy.
Police arrested Christopher Alphonse Raj (42) of Khajapet under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. He was detained by Palakkarai police. He is facing charges under six sections including possessing and circulating child porn.
Police said that Christopher worked as an air-conditioner mechanic and ran multiple Facebook accounts under fake identities. The accounts were used by him to share vulgar videos, including child pornography.
It was on his Facebook account with the name ”Nilavan Adavan” that he recently shared a child pornographic video. Police got a tip off about his activity and a separate team tracked his online activity.
Based on specific evidence, the Cyber Cell issued summons to him, following which he went on to delete the pornographic videos from his phone and storage device, but police retrieved the evidence (videos he shared to others) from his Facebook messenger account.
It is said that Christopher was an addict and he shared the content with other addicts on social media. Christopher was produced in court and taken to prison. He will be in judicial custody for 15 days.
Speaking to the media, Additional Director General of Police, Ravi said in the last two years Christopher had three fake Facebook accounts which he used to frequently upload pornographic videos. He has been booked under six sections.
He also clarified that rumours circulating on WhatsApp that those who watch pornography would be arrested, were fake ”Those who circulate or upload porn videos on social media would be arrested. There is no need for panic,” he added.
Following this arrest, in an attempt to curb child pornography, surveillance has intensified in Chennai and Coimbatore.
Recently, as part of a crackdown on child pornography, city police identified 1,500 IP addresses that are involved in the creation, storing and distribution of material that depict sexual acts on children over the internet.
A team of ethical hacking volunteers of the cyber cell of the police, in collaboration with a private agency, found that at least 1,500 persons across the State had downloaded such videos of child sexual abuse over a week in November.
Police said that physical addresses of the IP addresses were taken with the help of Internet service Providers.
Earlier, the State police issued a warning following reports that Chennai topped the list of people watching child pornography in India, which had the highest number of viewers. Police are also monitoring various Facebook groups.