Material was recovered from Alphonso's possession (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Key Highlights Information that led to Alphonso's arrest was shared by NCMEC and Facebook He was distributing objectionable material using Facebook messenger He has been booked under relevant sections of POCSO and IT Act

Chennai: Police in the Tiruchirappalli city of Tamil Nadu have arrested a 42-year-old man for allegedly possessing and distributing child pornography. Identified as Trichy resident Alphonso who works as an air conditioner repairman, the accused has been booked under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act.

Earlier this month, data pertaining to 1,500 internet users across the state who had downloaded child sexual abuse material, was sent to commissioners and district superintendents of police for further inquiry. As part of this drive, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) gave the Tamil Nadu police the Facebook ID of a user who was found distributing objectionable media concerning minor victims.

According to a report by TheNewsMinute, Alphonso was using an ID named 'nilavan_nilavan' which was suspended by the social media platform after which he created a new ID 'aadhavan_aadhavan'. A phone number listed in the account details was visible to Facebook and led Trichy police to the air conditioner repairman who was arrested from his home.

During the raid, police recovered child pornography on his systems and found out that he had been distributing these through Facebook messenger. A police official familiar with the case told the website that Alphonso "seems to have almost been addicted to child sexual abuse material". He has been booked under Section 67 (a) of the IT Act and relevant sections of the POCSO Act, added the officer. Alphonso was remanded to 15 days in judicial custody and a probe is underway to identify the people he had shared that material with. A similar crackdown was reported from the state of Kerala earlier this year where police had identified and apprehended a racket of men who were caught sharing videos of child pornography with each other.