While Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray continues to back the Mumbai Police, the CBI on Sunday arrested a Mumbai-based TV artist for allegedly running an international racket selling sexually explicit content comprising minors from abroad.
The CBI busted the racket and said that the accused obtained the content by enticing and blackmailing minors on Instagram. As per CBI officials, the man contacted over 1,000 users, including minors between 10 and 16 years of age across the US, Europe, and South Asian countries.
The CBI searched the residence of the accused, who claimed to be a junior artist in TV serials, and seized his mobile and laptop. All the electronic evidence has been sent for forensic analysis. The forensic analysis of the devices threw up material related to online sexual abuse, which the TV artist allegedly circulated to his clients internationally over WhatsApp and other platforms.
The television actor would pose as a film star to bate minors into online relationships during which he would ask them for pornographic photographs and videos, with which he would trap them in his illicit net.
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They said the accused would take their WhatsApp numbers to chat with them and during video calls ask them to perform sexual acts which would be shared with his clients in various countries through Instagram.
The CB has booked the TV artist under relevant sections of the POSCO and IT act, his name has not been revealed by the agency yet.