india

Updated: Oct 13, 2019 16:34 IST

Police in Kerala on Sunday arrested 11 people for allegedly circulating and propagating child pornography material on social media, in the third round of such a crackdown.

Officials said they were under the scanner of Cyberdome, a special wing of the police to deal with cybercrimes in the state, since January and arrests were made after collecting enough evidence.

If found guilty, the maximum punishment for offenders is five-year imprisonment with fine up to Rs 10 lakh.

They said 12 people were arrested in June and 14 in June under operation “P Hunt” using the digital access and resources provided by the Interpol and other agencies.

The additional director general of police Manoj Abraham, who heads the cyber wing, said they also sought the help of Telegram messaging app to track down many offenders.

“We have arrested 11 persons now and many are under observation,” Abraham said.

All the 11 people have been charged under Section 67 B of the Information Technology Act of 2000.

Cyberdome also found many child pornography groups were using the highly-secure Telegram messaging app for sharing videos as it has strong encryption and offers greater anonymity.

The senior police official said besides Telegram, these people were also using Facebook and WhatsApp to circulate their material.

The state police are observing 2019 as the ‘Year of Cyber Security’ to enforce zero tolerance towards child pornography and crime against children.

“Many international agencies including Interpol have recognised the work done by Kerala Police and our officials were invited to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France in November this year to speak about our success story. They have also agreed to conduct detailed training for our personnel in the first week of March 2020,” Abraham said.

He also said that the security of children is the responsibility of the society and people are duty-bound to inform Cyberdome if they come across any such incident or clippings.

Police had busted another racket two years ago with the arrest a 24-year-old MCA graduate from Malappuram and seized hundreds of photos and videos involving minor children.

K Sharaf Ali had collected pornographic material from social media and other sources and traded them under various names on Telegram.

He had been broadcasting the offensive clips to more than one lakh subscribers every day. He was arrested after an alert from the Interpol.