CBI busts WhatsApp group sharing child pornography, 1 arrested

The CBI has registered a case against members of a WhatsApp group for allegedly uploading and circulating child pornography videos. Dubbing the case a ‘global crime’, the agency filed a case under Section 67-B of Information Technology Act and will probe 119 members of the said Whatsapp group, who hail from India and various other countries including US, Pakistan, China and Brazil. CBI said the WhatsApp group named ‘KidsXXX’ had five administrators, and main administrator and kingpin Nikihil Verma has been arrested. The agency has also searched the premises of Verma and four other administrators - Satyendra Chauhan, Nafees Raja, Zahid and Adarsh - in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. It recovered computers, hard disks, phones and incriminating videos and photos of children being sexually abused. The agency said all angles in the case are being investigated, including the possibility of a well-organised syndicate shooting and selling these child sexual abuse videos in the virtual world. The CBI will write to US, Pakistan, Brazil, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Nigeria, Mexico and New Zealand and share details of members of the group with investigators there. ‘KidsXXX’ was running for the past two years, said the CBI, adding that minor victims in the videos and photos shared in the group are yet to be identified.