Chennai Police takes up facebook child porn case

Chennai: A day after city police officials were alerted about a possible pedophile group on Facebook, the cyber crime wing has registered cases and has launched a hunt for the suspects.

The move follows Facebook action which pulled down a page called ‘Chinna Ponnu Veriyargal’ (fanatics about young girls). Netizens had earlier notified Facebook about the existence of the page.

The offensive page had over 3,000 members and images of young girls which had attracted comments of a sexual nature from some of the members, transliterated into Tamil.

A telephonic complaint from a concerned resident was made to city police commissioner S. George on Thursday, following which the cyber cell was directed to take action, police said.

An official statement from the office of the police commissioner read: “Cases under Section 67 of Information Technology (IT) Act, and Section 14 (i) and 17 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) have been registered. A request has already been made to Facebook to share the details of the users who created the page and of those who made the obscene comments.”

City police officials said a special team, comprising officers from the cyber cell, the cyber lab and other wings of the central crime branch, has been set up to track down pages of a similar nature on Facebook.

“Offenders face seven years rigorous imprisonment and it is a non-bailable offence,” an officer said. Officials from CB and CID have also registered a case in this regard and are investigating. “Efforts are being made to track down those who made the nasty comments,” sources from within the CB and CID said.