CBI raids 59 locations in crackdown against child sex abuse material

The CBI on Saturday carried out searches at 59 locations across 21 states and a Union Territory in an internationally coordinated law-enforcement crackdown on online circulation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), with officials here saying more than 50 suspects in the country are under the scanner.

The raids, part of Operation 'Megha Chakra', were launched after the agency registered two cases under relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act based on inputs from the Crime Against Children (CAC) unit of Interpol, based in Singapore, which had received it from the New Zealand Police, the officials said.

The agency is questioning suspects about illicit material found on their electronic devices so as to identify the victims and the abusers, a CBI spokesperson said.

"It was alleged that a number of Indian citizens were involved in circulation/downloading/transmission of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) using cloud-based storage," the CBI spokesperson said after the ...