Bengaluru man arrested for uploading child porn video

Bengaluru, July 24 A 28-year-old man has been arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of police for uploading a child pornography video on his Facebook account, an official said on Friday.

"We have arrested Manjunath for uploading a child pornography video on his Facebook account in March 2019," CCB Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Kuldeep Jain told .

Manjunath from Chamrajpet in the city has been arrested under Sections 66 and 67 of the Information Technology Act. As Manjunath was not at home, the CCB tracked him for a couple of days before arresting him.

Incidentally, the police took up the case suo motu after Facebook reached out to the city police through the government of India and presented a pdf document on Manjunath's actions.

The document contained his phone number, IP address and other details, enabling the police to go after him.

"Manjunath is already an accused in six cases. Three cases were for theft and three pertained to preventive detention. He uploaded this video on his Facebook page in 2019," said Jain.

The DCP said that Facebook considers child pornography as a grave offence.

Meanwhile, the police are investigating from where he obtained the video or had he shot it himself.

"He is claiming that he got it randomly from somewhere and he did not record the video. We are investigating. Forwarding and sharing such videos is also a crime," said Jain.

The police will produce Manjunath in a local court by Friday evening.

Commenting on a similar case which took place more than three years ago in Hyderabad, in which an American citizen was arrested after being alerted by the Interpol for uploading child pornography videos, Jain said the international police agency treats India as one unit.

"For them India is one entity. They will not consider Bengaluru and Hyderabad separately. So through India and then through officials in Delhi, it will finally trickle down to the respective police department," said Jain.

Currently, the video in question is not available on Manjunath's Facebook account.

"We got concrete evidence from Facebook with all the details," said Jain.

( With inputs from IANS )