Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a junior engineer of the Uttar Pradesh government for allegedly sexually exploiting nearly 50 children over a period of 10 years and selling videos and photos of child sexual abuse to paedophiles across the world on the darknet.
According to CBI officials, the junior employee of the state irrigation department abused children between 5 to 16 years old from three districts Bandra, Hamirpur and Chitrakoot.
Rambhawan, the accused, is a resident of Chitrakoot and was arrested from neighbouring Banda district.
Sex toys, eight mobile phones, around Rs 8 lakhs in cash, laptop, and other digital evidence with a huge amount of child sexual abuse material was recovered during searches by the CBI at his residence, news agency PTI reported.
CBI nab paedophile
The junior engineer was involved in such activities for the last 10 years. He used to contact and share child sexual abuse material with other paedophiles around the globe using the darknet and cloud services abroad, CBI officials said.
It is believed that Rambhawan used to bribe the children with electronic gadgets including mobile phones to keep their mouth shut about the activities, the officials said.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, over 100 children are sexually abused in India per day. Crimes against children have risen more than six times between 2008 and 2018. The data showed that UP recorded the second-highest child rapes in India.
The darknet is a hidden network within the internet that can be accessed with some software configurations. It is used for illegal activities including for exchanging pornographic content, terror activities and illegal trade.
