Indian man busted for running an international child pornography network via WhatsApp group

NEW DELHI – Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a man involved in running an international child pornography network via WhatsApp.

Detectives from India’s CBI raided multiple locations across the country and arrested 20-year-old Nikhil Verma from his home in the city of Kannuaj in Uttar Pradesh state and seized his laptop, mobile phone, and hard disks. According to the authorities, the arrested is the administrator of the WhatsApp group used to exchange child pornography.

The WhatsApp group had 119 members from India, Pakistan, United States, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Afghanistan, China and some other countries and had been active for about two years.

Four other local suspects have been identified and are being pursued by authorities.

“We arrested the administrator of the WhatsApp group and recovered computer hardware and mobiles phones used to upload and store the videos and pictures,” a CBI official told ANI.

The CBI official said they are investigating all angles in this case, including a well-organized racket shooting children's sexual abuse videos and selling them in the virtual world.

The agency has registered a case under section 67-B of the Information & Technology Act and provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against members of the group, which has been active for two years now.