Two youths held for sharing child pornography

Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, June 12

In two separate incidents, the Ludhiana police on Saturday arrested two youngsters for browsing, viewing and sharing objectionable content related to children on social media platforms.

Those arrested have been identified as Ranjit Tiwari (23), a resident of Gurpal Nagar, Ludhiana, and Vikram Singh (20) of Bhagwan Nagar here.

Commissioner of Police (CP) Rakesh Agrawal said following reports from CyberTipline, the cyber cell of the Ludhiana police, arrested Matric-passed Ranjit Tewari, who was found sharing child pornographic content on his Instagram ID. Earlier, an FIR was registered under Section 67-B of the Information Technology (IT) Act at the Division 6 police station here.

The CP said in another case, Vikram Singh, who is pursuing a diploma, used to share objectionable content related to children on Instagram.

CyberTipline, nation’s centralised reporting system for the online exploitation of children, being run under the supervision of Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI, regularly monitors various social media platforms and Internet websites to keep a check on online enticement and objectionable content related to children.

While exhorting the public to refrain from sharing any kind of child pornography content or videos knowingly or unknowingly on any social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp, Agrawal said it was a serious crime under Section 67-B of the IT Act, which entails imprisonment upto five years and a fine of upto Rs 10 Lakh. “Even sharing a video having pornography content can land you in jail,” he added.

The CP also urged citizens of the city to bring to the notice of the police authorities in case they find any objectionable content circulating online.

ADCP (Investigation) Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, ACP (Cyber Crime) Vaibhav Sehgal and ACP Kulwant Singh are monitoring social media profiles of suspects to gather more information about such miscreants.