NEW DELHI: The CBI has sounded a serious warning – the pervasive presence of pornography on internet coupled with rapid urbanization is fast disconnecting the youth from social values, making them inclined towards sexual offences and has called for a national agency dealing with sexual assaults depicted on the web.

In an affidavit before the Supreme Court, which had taken suo motu notice of circulation of a violent sexual assault video clip on internet, CBI said: “The sharp rise in rapes with the ubiquity of internet-enabled pornography, coupled with the forces of rapid urbanization that lead to disconnected lives of youth have produced a complex social crisis in the country, can be correlated to rampant proliferation of such crimes.”

READ ALSO: Indian men’s 'insatiable lust' fuelling violent cyber porn: CBI to SC

On the one hand, the agency linked the rise in sexual assaults on women to the rampant circulation of pornography on internet and on the other, it said visuals posted on the web go unpunished as no state police had the jurisdiction, capability or expertise to deal with such cyber crime.

“The absence or serious deficiency of law enforcement in the vast space of cyberspace, leads to impunity amongst the youth, who feel emboldened by the virtual assurance of non-deterrence and the hope that they can get away with it easily,” the agency said.

Explaining the impact of circulation of sexual assault video-clips on internet, the CBI said: “The most abhorrent crime of rape when video-recorded without the consent of the hapless victim, hangs like the Sword of Damocles over her as she does not know when or where or before whom it may surface to re-traumatize her and her family members.

“A crime against an Indian woman or child is a national crime that requires a condign law enforcement response; and since in the present criminal justice architecture that is riddled with confusion over jurisdictional issues, the need of the hour is for a national level law enforcement agency to deal with clear and continuous danger to the victims of such crimes that are committed with impunity because the offenders feel that owing to jurisdictional confusion they can get away with it,” the affidavit said.

Sounding like it making a stump speech, CBI said: “the offences against women and children in India cannot go un-investigated, un-tried and un-punished, as such would be a dereliction of sovereign duty by the national sovereign power and an anathema to the rule of law.”

“Time has come to realize the challenge posed by the limitless cyberspace in the context of violent sexual offences intended to titillate and to further trigger the chain of repeat offences….these crimes are a matter of national shame that require a response at the national level through a central law enforcement agency to protect the fundamental right to dignity of women and children,” the CBI said.

