THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cyberdome officials tracking circulation of Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM) have identified that four people who were nabbed during the raids on Saturday were part of an international child pornography racket and they earned money by uploading obscene content of local children to darknet sites and peer-to- peer social networking platforms. ADGP Manoj Abraham, who is also the nodal officer of Cyberdome, said out of the 47 arrested, four people stood out from the rest because of the quantity of CSAM seized from them.
“A huge quantity of CSAM, including those of local kids, were recovered from those four people. They were stored in several hard-disks. From their chat record and bank transaction details it has emerged that they were uploading the content in exchange of money. We only had a cursory glance on the confiscated devices as those were immediately sent for forensic examination. Once the forensic examination is over, we will get a clear picture of the magnitude of their crime,” he said.
The four youths were from Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, Kannur and Kozhikode districts. All the four were highly educated and had a better technical knowledge. “They were tech-savvy and were using encrypted sites to access and upload abuse materials,” said another senior officer. He said the four used to sell videos to national and international clients in return for cash.
The domestic clients, who purchased videos from them, used to send cash via bank accounts, while the darknet users transacted in bitcoins, he added. The police had conducted raids after obtaining clear digital evidence from cyber space. Manoj Abraham said that by using special software, they could even know the model number of the gadgets they were using. “We went after them only after procuring enough digital evidence,” Manoj Abraham said.