36 arrested in crackdown on child pornography in Delhi

In a major crackdown on child pornography, the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police launched a pan Delhi action under the operation Mitigation of Adolescent Sexually Offensive Online Material (MASOOM).

According to the police, a total of 105 FIRs have been registered all over Delhi during the operation and 36 persons have been apprehended or placed under arrest.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Prashant Gautam said that the Cyber Cell launched Pan Delhi operation against child pornography under the operation MASOOM in coordination with all the district police.

The DCP said that the details of the violations pertaining to child pornographic material Cyber Tipline Reports (CTR) are received at Cyber Cell through National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), which has Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). On these CTRs a total of 105 cases have been registered in various police stations of Delhi and necessary legal action has been taken against the offenders.

According to the police, a total of 36 people have been arrested or apprehended during the operation.

DCP said that NCMEC is a non-profit organization (NGO) based in the US and established in 1984 by the United Nations Congress. The organization has a tie up with the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and others.

Whenever, the NGO comes across any content found violating the privacy or obscene material regarding children, the same is red flagged. They procure the IP address details of the user who had uploaded the obscene content and share it with NCRB under the MOU signed between the two organisations.

Under the MoU, NCMEC provides Cyber Tipline complaints and information about sexually offensive content against children to NCRB which is being shared or uploaded on various social media platforms. The information is further shared with the state nodal agencies by NCRB.

According to the police official, being the nodal agency in Delhi, the Cyber Crime Unit of Delhi Police analysed the details received from NCRB for the purpose of identification of organised nexus in child pornography.

A team under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Sunil Panchal was constituted and technical analysis of over 10000 such cyber tipline reports was conducted.

Further teams initiated action on the basis of jurisdiction of districts and identified the suspects involved in such activity.

In the drive, a total of 105 cases have been registered by Delhi Police and 36 persons have been arrested or apprehended so far. Further legal action is being taken.