NCPCR probes Bengaluru daycare abuse, Meta CSAM ads
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Friday took suo motu cognisance of alleged physical abuse and torture of children at a daycare centre operating in Bengaluru’s Brookefield area.
The Child Body NCPCR also took suo motu cognisance of the alleged Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) circulating through Instagram, as reported by BBC Eye. Sources in the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare said the Commission is following up the case closely. An investigation by the BBC has found that Meta has been running paid advertisements for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in India on their Instagram platform.
In a letter dated July 2, addressed to Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner PS Kantharaju, NCPCR Member Secretary Dr Sanjeev Sharma said the Commission has decided to inquire into the matter that came to light through media reports.
An NCPCR team headed by Senior Technical Expert Paresh Shah visited Bengaluru on Friday for a fact-finding inquiry. The team also includes Anshita Surana, Professional (Law), JJ Division. The inquiry will be conducted by Saturday, and the report will be submitted by Monday.
The Commission has requested the district administration to extend all support, including stay and transportation, to the team. The letter notes that NCPCR is a statutory body under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005, and is mandated to monitor the implementation of the POCSO Act, 2012, the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, and the RTE Act, 2009.
The case pertains to the alleged abuse of an infant at a day care facility, which came to light after video evidence of the incident surfaced. According to police, five women employed as nannies at the daycare centre have been arrested after videos allegedly showing them abusing toddlers surfaced.
The accused have been identified as Manjula, Vijayalakshmi, Bhavani, Sindhu and Bindu. HAL Police have registered a case under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Section 351 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
NCPCR also took cognisance of BBC’s World Service, which discovered advertisements using terms such as ‘rape video’ and ‘child video’ that direct people to channels on the Telegram messaging service where users can purchase this material for as little as $1. While Meta said that they had disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts behind them. Telegram said that it had already removed more than 274,000 groups and channels that promote child sexual abuse material in 2026.
