BENGALURU: A private firm distributed comic books containing explicit adult content to students in the age group of 6 to 18 years at an annual event held in the city recently, following which Byappanahalli police have registered a case against the event organiser .

According to parents, these comic books were distributed during the 7th edition of Comic Con, the annual comic festival organized by Comic Con India (CCI) in Bengaluru on November 17 and 18 at KTPO Convention Centre, Whitefield.

Children who got tickets for the event on both days were presented with a goodie bag which contained a comic book and a poster, along with a kit which contained a badge, a T-shirt and a notebook. The parents, though, found the contents of Saga, an epic space opera/fantasy comic book series, written by Brian K Vaughan, an American author, with illustrations by Fiona Staples, objectionable.

Saga series is extremely popular. Influenced by Star Wars, it is based on ideas Vaughan conceived both as a child and as a parent.

In a statement, communications team, Comic Con India said: “We sincerely apologize for the inadvertent mix- up that has occurred at Bengaluru Comic Con 2018. In almost seven years of our show, we have never had such a thing happen. We, as an organisation, neither support nor promote such content for an underage audience.”

CCI, however, did not reply to a question on what action had been initiated after the issue was brought to its notice. Anamika Iyengar, a resident of Indiranagar and mother of a 16-year-old girl who attended the event, said: “On Thursday morning, while cleaning the house, I checked the kit my daughter had got and was shocked to see the images in the book which were downright adult and porn.”

Anamika immediately emailed CCI seeking an explanation. The email, a copy of which is with TOI, states that as part of the freebies distributed at the event, there were magazines/comic books that carried explicit adult content.

Anamika wrote, “To put it plainly, the content was pornographic in nature!! I am a fortunate parent as my child had carelessly thrown the packets (along with these magazines) aside and left it to me to put away the bags. Imagine my horror when I casually flipped through the magazine and found adult, pornographic content in one of these magazines!!” She wanted to know who would be held accountable for such irresponsible behaviour.

Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSPCR) chairperson (in-charge) Mariswamy Y said they’d look into the matter.

Police officials said, if needed, they will add Pocso provisions during the course of probe.

