The CBI has identified some of the children who were sexually abused by a junior engineer with the Irrigation department in Uttar Pradesh over the past decade.
The alleged paedophile, a resident of Chitrakoot, took photographs and filmed his acts to share or sell them via darkweb to people in India and overseas. He was arrested by the CBI last month. The agency took his custody from November 26 to 29 for interrogation.
“A Central Forensic Science Laboratory team has also visited the places where the accused had sexually abused the children, as disclosed by him, to gather evidence. Four video games, apparently used to lure the potential victims, Wi-Fi modems and several other articles have been seized,” said an official.
Confirming that some victims had been identified, the official said the district’s Child Welfare Committee had been contacted for all necessary help. The agency is yet to interview the victims, which can be done in accordance with the set procedures.
In the Muzaffarpur shelter-home case also, in which several minor girls were physically and sexually assaulted, the CBI had got their statements recorded.
Preliminary investigations against the accused have revealed that he had sexually abused about 50 minors of the 5-16 age group. He would gift mobile phones and cash to buy their silence. The accused used cloud storage services of meha-nz and box.com to store a large number of video clips and photographs.
Initial searches in his premises had led to seizure of ₹8 lakh in cash, eight mobile phones, some laptops, web-camera, electronic storage devices and sex toys.
The CBI examined the accused’s emails and found that he was in regular touch with several Indian and foreign nationals, with whom he shared the child sexual abuse material through social media platforms and secret websites.
Their identities are being established. If required, the agency may contact enforcement agencies in other countries for action against the suspects.