Army officer held for surfing,uploading child porn

Acting on a report last September by the German police to Interpol stating transmission of child porn videos through a server,the international police body traced the server to India after which a report was submitted to the CBI in Delhi in March 2010,police sources said. The CBI had then directed the Mumbai Crime Branch to investigate.

“We traced the IP address to Singh’s house in Namdar Manzil,Colaba. Cyber cell officers visited the house on Thursday. Singh admitted to having downloaded porn and uploaded them on certain sites,” said Joint Commissioner of Police,Crime,Himanshu Roy. “During preliminary interrogation,Singh said he had been surfing child porn sites for the past few years,” he added.

On Friday,the Crime Branch sought Singh’s custody saying they wanted to find if he had any international or local accomplices or uploaded the videos on other sites.

“After a two-month investigation,we concluded Singh was involved in a porn racket,which could involve foreigners. Most pictures were of foreign children,all of a tender age of 3-4 years,” said Investigating Officer Mukund Pawar.

In court,Singh’s lawyer Dilip Bagwe argued that his client’s custody was not required as police had already seized the evidence. “Singh is a serving Army officer… and would not abscond… Even an attempt to dogde police will be like an open invitation for court martial,” Bagwe argued.

The court granted the police Singh’s custody till May 12. Officials said the Cyber Cell had seized two hard disks of 80 GB from Singh’s residence in which over 150 files on child pornography were stored. Officials said Singh had purchased the software to download and post the content on free websites.

“We had been keeping a watch on his house but did not find anyone besides his family visiting him. After ensuring it was the computer at his place which was being used,we raided his house on Thursday night,” said an official.

“Incidentally at the time of the raid,his computer was in the process of downloading more material. We were at his house for over six hours. He also spoke to us about how and where he uploaded the images and videos. While he seemed to be aware of technicalities of the process,he appeared to be surprised that downloading and dissemination of the images is a crime,” he added.

Roy said they would interrogate Singh to find where he procured the content and whether any were created by him. “Prima facie,the websites he uploaded content are voyeuristic rather than soliciting in nature. We will procure his bank and credit card details to ascertain whether he paid a membership,” he said.

Singh has been in the Army for 22 years and has been with its Supply and Transport Wing in Colaba.

An Army spokesperson said he is on study leave and has been staying in Mumbai with his family for two years now. The Army has applied for his bail so that they could proceed with their own investigation.