Three laptops, five mobile phones, pen drives were recovered from the accused (Representational)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a Srinagar resident for allegedly running a racket that involved circulating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the internet after targeting US-based minors with the help of his wife who is based there, officials said Tuesday.
The CBI has charged the accused under relevant section of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act for the use of child for pornographic purposes and under the Information Technology Act for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form), they said.
While the probe agency did not name the accused in its statement, he was identified by officials as Niyaz Ahmad Mir. The 35-year-old accused was produced before a competent court in Srinagar today.
It is alleged that he was running the racket along with his wife, understood to be a US citizen, living in Washington.
His wife, 34-year old Tamara Stanley, a resident of Hoquiam, Grays Harbor County in Southwest Washington state was arrested on June 25 this year by the US authorities and was "charged with production of child pornography", according to a press statement from the US Justice Department.
The CBI has alleged that the wife was in a "master-slave" relation with the accused and exploited minor children in the US on his directions. She allegedly recorded videos of the explicit acts and sent them to the accused electronically, they said.
"It is alleged that the accused uploaded the CSAM videos and images over the dark web for financial gains and was also involved in direct communication with many minors in the US," CBI Spokesperson RK Gaur said.
He also alleged that when the minors refused to follow his diktat, he shared these videos and images with their family members.
The special unit of the CBI which tracks online CSAM conducted searches at the premises of the accused in Srinagar which led to the recovery of incriminating digital evidences including three laptops, five mobile phones, pen drives, hand written notes among other things.
"CBI regularly coordinates with international law enforcement agencies to detect and investigate sexual abuse of minors, especially over the cyber space and also reaffirms its commitment towards promoting cooperation with US Law Enforcement Agencies in combating child sexual abuse in cyber space," Mr Gaur said.
On November 16, the CBI had arrested a Junior Engineer from Uttar Pradesh's Chitrakoot district on the allegations of sexually abusing over 50 children in Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur districts of the state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)