The Cyber crime wing of the Kerala Police was in the news recently with a series of raids nicknamed ‘Operation P Hunt,’ in which the cybercrime police arrested 12 people, registered 20 cases and seized laptops and mobiles from the arrested.
The cybercrime wing arrested the 12 for allegedly viewing and sharing nude photos of children. The 12 accused were allegedly using Whatsapp, Facebook and Telegram groups to share the photos. The police action was focussed on 126 individuals and various groups. One minor was arrested in the raid.
In Thiruvananthapuram rural areas, a native of Karippur in Nedumangad, and a native of Pullampara, were arrested; two people were arrested from Pathanamthitta district; two more from Ernakulam; three from Kannur; and two from Palakkad and Malappuram districts.
Those arrested were charged under section 67 B of the Information Technology Act, 2000 for punishment for publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act in electronic form.
“The arrested persons have been under our observation for a while. They would download videos from the internet and would share on groups,” High Tech Crime Enquiry Cell Sub Inspector Starmon R. Pillai said.
According to a press release from the police, this is the third raid targeted at groups and individuals who share nude photos of children on Whatsapp, Facebook and Telegram groups. The people who take part in such groups have been under the police’s scanner. The police seized mobile phones, laptops, modems, hard disks, memory cards and computers from the accused.
The raid was conducted under the instruction of nodal officer of Cyber Dom ADGP Manoj Abraham.
“The tools to unmask culprits’ IP-address were provided by the Interpol. We got in touch with them during the Cocoon cyber conference programme conducted by the Cyberdome in Kochi last year, Mr. Abraham told the media.
The technical advancement the police’s cyber crime fighting teams made after aligning with Interpol was very much evident from the way they managed to break into encrypted sites. “Some of the arrested during the raids were using software like Tor to remain invisible. They thought their anonymity will remain intact and they can never be caught,” Mr. Abraham had said.
