New Delhi/Dhenkanal: A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team was attacked by slum dwellers in Dhenkanal during its raids as part of a nationwide crackdown on an alleged racket of online child sexual abuse Tuesday. The searches were conducted at 76 places in 14 states.
The CBI team was attacked by locals while it was conducting searches in the house of Surendra Nayak at Colony Sahi of Dhenkanal town. The CBI reached Nayak’s house in the morning and as they were trying to take him with them, the locals attacked the sleuths.
The mob dragged them out of Nayak’s house. Several women surrounded the team and beat them up. Later, Town police staff rescued the CBI officers.
Senior officials at the Town police station said the CBI officials had not intimated about their visit. Sources said Nayak was part of a social media group and used to share links containing adult content.
“I had joined a group named Desi MMS. I had joined the group through a link on the internet and was sharing the links of adult contents from one website to other and groups. I had received 21 USD. The CBI officials asked me about the number of members in the group and when I had joined. They took away my mobile phone,” said Nayak.
The CBI also conducted searches in Bhadrak district on the house of an auto driver. The auto driver is facing charges of circulating pictures of minor girls on internet. The sleuths also carried raids in Jajpur too.
Child pornography
Bhubaneswar: Child pornography has been a menace for Odisha as it topped the list among states in the country on registration of cases related to the use and storing of child pornography materials in 2018 and 2019. As per the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau, 333 cases under Sections 14 and 15 of POCSO Act were registered in the state in 2018.
In 2019, the state police registered 542 cases for child pornography. Though it came down to 33 in 2020, Odisha still remains among the top ten states in the country in child pornography.
