Telangana Police have arrested a 23-year-old software engineer for selling child porn videos on messaging platforms.
V. Madhukar Reddy, an employee of an IT firm in Hyderabad, was arrested from his house in the Nustullpur village in Karimnagar district.
The 23-year-old was making money by circulating child sexual abuse material on social media, police said.
The Women Safety Wing of Telangana Police acted after getting credible information during cyber patrolling that one person was circulating child pornography videos on social media networks and making money.
According to police, Reddy was addicted to watching porn videos. He downloaded various child/adult pornography videos, stored them in phone and was sharing the same on Telegram. He took the help of his friend to get a payment gateway QR code of a third person to accept money without disclosing his identity.
He fixed up a price for access to pornography videos. The accused was charging Rs 100 to join the group and also fixed the charges depending on the number of videos shared with his ‘subscribers’.
A police officer said he earned Rs 60,000 since June by sharing 1,270 child porn videos on the messaging platform.
After the inquiry, a special team of the Women Safety Wing had got a case registered against the accused at the LMD police station, Thimapur circle, Karimnagar district. He was booked under section 292 of the Indian Penal Code and section 15 of Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 2012.
During the course of investigation, the LMD police station with active and technical support of Women Safety Wing arrested the accused.
The investigation was taken up on the complaint of P. Hareesh, Sub Inspector of Police working in Women Safety Wing who monitors Internet and social media regularly. During cyber patrolling and on credible information the accused was identified.
Police seized one mobile phone and one laptop from the accused.
