Aizawl, June 9 -- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested a man in Aizawl, Mizoram, for the alleged sexual assault of a minor and possession and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), officials said.
The arrest was made in connection with a case lodged on May 30 involving serious charges of child exploitation using digital media.
The accused was allegedly engaged in the production, downloading, accumulation, storage, and uploading of CSAM showing minors in sexually explicit conduct. The CBI had previously searched his house on June 4 and confiscated a number of electronic gadgets. Forensic examination revealed a large cache of images and videos having CSAM.
The content retrieved was authenticated using data from INTERPOL's International Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database and Cyber Tipline Reports (CTRs) submitted by Google to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Additional forensic analysis ensured the accused had sexually assaulted a minor in Aizawl.
In a swift and coordinated effort, the CBI managed to trace and rescue the minor victim, who was lured and threatened by the accused to create the abusive content.
Shockingly, the case was not reported by the victim or the family and was rather found suo motu by the agency through cyber intelligence and surveillance tools.
The operation underscored the proactive work of CBI in addressing child abuse online and exploiting cross-border collaboration and cyber forensics to safeguard vulnerable children.
The agency reaffirmed its resolve to aggressively pursue such crimes and encouraged citizens to report any useful information or suspicious activity concerning child abuse to relevant authorities.
Investigation in the case is ongoing.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.