The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested the wife of a state irrigation department junior engineer accused of sexually abusing about 50 young boys.
Durgawati was arrested for her alleged involvement in 41-year-old Ram Bhawan’s actions and charged with conspiracy. She was held from Ram Bhawan’s hometown Naraini in Banda district. While Durgawati has been sent to Banda jail, Ram Bhawan is in judicial remand. He is alleged to have abused about 50 children in the age group of five to 16 years in the districts of Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur in the last 10 years.
Banda Additional District Government Counsel (Criminal) Manoj Dixit confirmed Durgawati’s arrest and said she was charged under IPC Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 17 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. She is accused of threatening witnesses, and hiding the evidence of her husband’s crimes.
Ram Bhawan was arrested last month from Chitrakoot, where he was posted as a junior engineer. The CBI reportedly recovered 10 mobile phones, two laptops and around four pen drives, six memory cards, and around Rs 8 lakh in cash, along with sex toys and videography equipment. In those gadgets, the agency has found 65 videos and 610 photos. It is alleged that he used to lure children from families with financial troubles using mobile phones and gadgets. He was operational for the last 10 years, mainly contacting and sharing child sexual abuse material with other paedophiles globally using the darknet and cloud services.
2020-12-28 10:45:45