Child porn: Statewide raids net 47 persons

Thiruvananthapuram: Police on Saturday raided 117 locations across the state and arrested 47 persons, including a government doctor, for storing or electronically sharing child porn videos.
The raids were conducted as part of Operation P-Hunt, a drive to check child porn.
Besides registering 89 cases, police have also seized 143 electronic devices used to store or transmit sexually explicit content of children, who appeared to be aged between six and 15.
Police said the arrested were in the 18 to 45 age group. Among those arrested were a 31-year-old doctor of Primary Health Centre at Kamakshi, Idukki, and three men from Perumbavoor, Rayamangalam and Muvattupuzha.
Officers from the Countering Child Sexual Exploitation (CCSE) Cell of the police Cyberdome conducted the raids.
ADGP (headquarters) Manoj Abraham, who heads the Cyberdome, said there has been a spike in online salacious activities ever since the Covid-19-necessciated lockdown.
Police, monitoring such activities, found the sharing of child porn materials, which led to the raids and subsequent arrests.
“Most videos we seized showed children, who appeared to be residents of the state, being sexually exploited. All those videos appeared to be shot in recent times. We are investigating the source of these videos,” Abraham said, adding that the perpetrators might be someone within in the families or neighbours with access to the children’s households.
The officer added that most videos were shared over private groups on WhatsApp or Telegram. Abraham also raised concern over the possible sexual abuse of children within their houses.
As many as three inspectors general—Ashok Yadav, Harshita Attaluri and S Sreejith—were part of the raids. More arrests are likely in the coming days.