Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Beware ! Your child could also fall prey to the evil world of child pornography which has emmerged as the major challenge for Maharashtra as whopping 11,122 instances of child sexual abuse content posted on-line have been received by Maharashtra Cyber in the form of ‘Tipline Reports’ from National Crime Record Bureaue (NCRB) in last 18 months.
On the basis of these reports, a total of 213 First Information Reports (FIRs) have been registered in the State by various police units. Of them, 38 FIRs were registered by Nagpur police which are highest in the State.
“Child pornography mean an on-line content that depicts sexually explicit activities involving a child,” said Sanjay Shintre, Superitendent of Police (SP) Maharashtra Cyber.
The ‘Tipline Reports’ of child pornography are being generated by National Center of Missing and Exploited children (NCMEC) of US after monitoring websites, search engines, social media networks. The NCMEC with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regularly shares the reports with NCRB of India which further shares it with Cyber police of States in the country.
The reports contain Internet Protocol (IP) address and locations from where the child pornographic material is accessed. On the basis of the IP address and locations, the Cyber police trace the accused and arrest them after registering FIR.
The ‘Operation Blackface’ was started by Maharashtra Cyber in 2019-20 to punish those involved in Child pornography in the State. Of these 11,122 ‘Tipline reports’, the highest 5,699 reports were sent to Pune city, followed by 4,496 to Mumbai city, 364 to Thane city, 302 to Nagpur city, 90 to Aurangabad city and so on.
In Maharashtra, the Nagpur police have registered the highest 38 offences on the basis of these reports. Sr. Police Inspector Ashok Bagul of Cyber Police Station Nagpur said that more offences would be registered soon as the police are still investigating remaining reports. A total of 28 accused have been arrested so far, PI Bagul added.
Under “Operation Blackface”, the Maharashtra Cyber is identifying the districts from where child pornography related content are being transmitted.
The Maharashtra Cyber has also sent ‘Tipline report’ to Nagpur Rural, Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia, Wardha, Akola, Buldhana, Washim, Amravati Rural, Jalgaon, Thane, Ahmednagar, Palghar, Nasik, Pune Rural, Dhule, Kolhapur, Sanali, Raigarh, Satara, Latur, Parbhani, Beed, Bhandara, Nandurbar, Hingoli, Ratnagiri, Solapur Rural, Nanded, Osmanabad.
The offences have been registered under provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the accused, Indian Penal Code and Information Technology (IT) act, informed SP Shintre.
SP Shintre warned internet users of sharing child pornographic content on the internet. “If someone received such content, he/she must alert the police,” the SP said. He also appealed to the parents to be alert when their children are using the internet.
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