The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested one of five suspected administrators of a WhatsApp group in Kannauj for allegedly circulating pornographic videos and photographs of children, the Hindustan Times reported.
The agency said that it had conducted searches in Delhi, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the case and arrested 20-year-old Nikhil Verma. Verma, a commerce graduate, is being brought to Delhi on a transit remand, The Hindu reported. An unidentified CBI spokesperson said the investigators had recovered incriminating material stored on computers, hard disks and mobile phones.
The CBI is now looking for Satyendra Chauhan, a Mumbai resident; Nafis Raza and Zahid, residents of Delhi; and Adarsh of Noida, who are the group’s other suspected administrators.
The group had 114 members from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, Mexico, New Zealand, China, Nigeria, Brazil and Kenya, the agency said. It was now in the process of writing to law enforcement agencies in these countries to seek their assistance in identifying these people, the spokesperson added.
The CBI said it would investigate if an organised gang filmed the videos and pictures and was selling them online.
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