The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an accused, Niyaz Ahmed Mir, 35, resident of Srinagar in an on-going investigation of a case related to online child sexual abuse racket.
The agency had earlier registered a case under Information Technology Act and provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the accused on the allegations of running online child sexual abuse racket from India, targeting minors living in USA, the CBI said.
“It was further alleged that the accused uploaded the pornographic videos and images over the dark web for financial gains and was also involved in direct communication with many minors in the USA,” it said.
The wife of the accused, Tamara Stanley, is living in Washington, USA, officials said.
“The accused was allegedly operating through his wife, who had agreed to be involved in a Master - Slave relationship with the accused and on his direction, she allegedly exploited multiple minors, recorded these abuses and electronically sent the same to him. It was also alleged that when the victims refused to follow his diktats, he shared these videos and images with their family members,” the agency said.
Searches were conducted at the premises of the accused at Srinagar which led to recovery of incriminating digital evidence including three laptops, five mobiles, pen drives and hand written notes among others.
The arrested accused is being produced before the Competent Court at Srinagar, officials said.
It further said, “The CBI regularly coordinates with international law enforcement agencies to detect and investigate sexual abuse of minors, especially over the cyber space and also reaffirms its commitment towards promoting cooperation with US Law Enforcement Agencies in combating child sexual abuse in cyber space.”
Consistent and conscious efforts are being made to identify and detain criminals involved in sexual exploitation of minors. The CBI had recently traced and arrested an accused, resident of District Chitrakoot (Uttar Pradesh) on November 16 on the allegations of sexually abusing over 50 children in the districts of Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh). During searches, huge material including mobile phones, laptops, web-camera, electronic storage devices, Pen Drives / Memory Cards, several sex toys, and emails were recovered.