Chargesheet filed against Thanjai-based PhD scholar for online child sexual abuse

Tiruchy: The CBI on Friday filed chargesheet against a PhD scholar from Thanjavur for his involvement in online child sexual abuse.

On March 15, a 11 member CBI team led by a DSP secured J Victor James Raja (35), who is pursuing PhD in a private college in Thanjavur, for uploading a 10-year-old girl’s pornography on a particular website that was controlled by an international gang. He was booked under various sections including section 67B of the IT act, POCSO act and IPC 120 B (Criminal Conspiracy) and arrested.

According to the official communication by the agency on Friday, they found Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images and videos from the INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database. The analysis of the images using cyber forensic tools, location of incident was traced to Thanjavur District. Analysis of videos revealed that a few victims were allegedly being sexually abused by men.

The agency, during a search in the house of the accused, recovered a few electronic gadgets and the further investigation found that the accused was sexually assaulting as many as eight children, both male and female between the age of 5 and18 for a couple of years.

It may be noted that Raja was in the habit of uploading pornography content for money. The Interpol sleuths, who came to know about it, alerted the Union government. Based on the government order, the CBI arrested him. The initial investigation found that agents like Raja are operating from as many as 21 states in India and are uploading child pornography for their paid clients.