Man held in Nashik for spreading child porn on WhatsApp: Police

Nashik man held for circulating child porn on whatsapp. (Representational)

A man was arrested in Nashik on Saturday for allegedly spreading child pornographic content in a WhatsApp group. On Friday, six men, including three college students, were arrested in connection to the case.

“We have arrested a working professional from Nashik for spreading salacious content linked to children on a WhatsApp group. The others, who were arrested on Friday, include three college students from Bhayander and two working professionals,” said Atul Kulkarni, Thane Rural Assistant Superintendent of Police.

Police said ‘BB Badboys’ was an international WhatsApp group, on which members shared pornographic content. “We are trying to identify the admin of the group, which had 217 members. As of now, it seems there was no women or minors in the group,” Kulkarni said.

A video clip involving a minor was circulated on the group, after which one of the members, whose identity has been withheld, approached a cyber security expert, who advised him to approach the police. “We have made the member the complainant in the case. All accused have been booked under the IT Act, as it’s illegal to even watch or forward such content in which a minor is involved,” an officer from the Thane Rural police said.

“The accused were just forwarding the clips that they had taken off the Internet. We are trying to trace if someone had been producing such content… All the members were using false names or nicknames, so it’s difficult to identify them. But we will make more arrests…,” an officer said.

Kulkarni said while several members of the group were from Nashik, some were from Bhayander and its surrounding areas. “Some of the numbers are even international. We are trying to get details of all the members,” he added.

On Saturday, five of the six arrested were presented before the Thane sessions court, which remanded them to judicial custody till Monday. “We are not asking for their police custody, as we know what the information they might provide. They were members and didn’t know who the group admin was,” Kulkarni said.

The accused have been booked under Section 67(b) of the IT Act (punishment for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit act in an electronic form). “We are considering to add the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the accused,” an officer said.