Lucknow, January 11: CBI on Sunday, took into custody an engineer from UP’s Sonbhadra district and his Delhi-based friend on charges of selling child porn through Instagram. The accused techie identified as Neeraj Yadav used to work in Delhi until he lost his job during the pandemic-induced lockdown. Following which, he joined hands with his friends to make quick money by selling objectionable material including child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Instagram.

They accepted payments via platforms like Paytm, Google Pay and others to complete the transactions. Child Porn Consumption Spikes Amid Lockdown, Maharashtra Home Minister Says Trend Shows Huge Presence of Paedophiles.

Here's how the racket operated:

So after receiving the payment from the interested party, the accused shared the said objectionable material with them through WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and other social media platforms. It was further alleged that the said accused had purchased objectionable material from another accused and had stored it over cloud-based websites, Joshi added.

Maharashtra saw a huge spike in child porn consumption during the lockdown period. According to the state Home Minister, the increase in child porn consumption showed the huge presence of paedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts online.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 11, 2021 08:42 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).