Jaljith Thottoli, a 38-year-old medical transcriptionist from Kerala and Binu Phalgunan a journalist were alerted in November by friends about a group on messaging app Telegram called ‘Poombatta’ or butterfly in Malayalam. It was a group that could be accessed only through an invite.
Though Jaljith has previously busted Facebook groups with people who had sexual interest in children, he had never expected this kind of depravity.
On November 22, as Jaljith joined the group, the group administrator called ‘MLPM’ was busy sharing a series of pictures of a young girl. The girl (age around 9 or 10) wearing a red necklace and reading a Malayalam magazine can be seen in various states of undress.
The group was a thriving platform for child sex abusers, and photographs and videos of toddlers and older children were being shared constantly. From nude images of children to violent sexual crimes against children, the group regularly shared explicit content for its nearly 360 members.
“The pictures and videos kept coming. They were horrific. Many of these children could have been groomed as they seem to have willingly posed for these pictures,” Jaljith told TNM.
On November 22 itself, Jaljith informed the Inspector General of Crime Branch about the group. These people, most using fake ids and names, were so brazen that the pinned message on the group said, “This is no place for people who are not into child porn.”
Within four days, Jaljith with the help of friends tracked down four mobile numbers through which the administrator ‘MLPM’ was operating.
After observing the group for a month, on Thursday, the Malappuram police arrested a 25-year-old man, who was the administrator or ‘MLPM’. Sharaf Ali, a native of Vandoor in the district, is an M.Com graduate, the police told TNM.
Sharaf Ali has been booked under Section 14, 15 of the POCSO Act and 67 B (ab) of the Information and Technology (IT) Act. He has been remanded to judicial custody in Perinthalmanna.
The depravity
Sharaf Ali is the administrator of 4 groups including a group on wife swapping and another group of porn videos. He was part of 51 Telegram groups, confirmed police.
“The content is mostly catering to Malayalis, the admin used to emphasis that very often. When someone shares foreign porn videos, admin would ask them not to do so and have spoken that we need to share more of Indian content, catering to Malayalis. There was one image of a girl reading a Malayalam magazine,” says Jaljith.
Sharaf Ali
The admin also asked "non-participating" members to share content and engage regularly. He warned them that they would be thrown out otherwise.
“No other porn content is allowed in the group. Admin's number or anybody else's number wasn’t visible to others. You can only see their handle name, which is fake. On one day, at least 30-40 videos/pictures get shared in the group and there is a pattern to how the admin runs the group. The content gets shared maximum from 9 30pm to 11 pm. There were no videos or pictures of boy children, only girls,” says Jaljith.
On November 26, there were discussions in the group that someone has betrayed them and that the police knew about them. The group was then deleted.
Kerala Crime Branch IG Sreejith IPS told TNM that the police were tracing other members on the group. “I can't tell you if the group is active now or not. We want the members to be active, only then can we trace them. I feel we have nabbed the admin in a reasonable time, considering how the encryption in Telegram provides security to its users.”
Should victims be helped?
TNM has seen a few of the images and as Jaljith pointed out, there were series of pictures featuring the same children. Kerala police however says they are not looking at providing intervention.
“We don't know who the kids are; we won’t be looking into that that will be a witch-hunt. In this case, unless the children come forward, we cannot intervene. We haven't gone after these images and we will not be doing so. We don’t even know if they exist or not,” said Sreejith.
Vidya Reddy of TULIR- Centre for the Prevention and Healing Child Sexual Abuse disagrees. “Victim identification is the cornerstone of investigating child abuse or child pornography. It is shocking the police do not believe it is not their concern. It is now well proved very often that a large such images of children sexually abused are a relative of the person who produces the pictures and the child personally needs help,” Vidya told TNM.
Why we are not calling them pedophiles
Through the story, TNM has used word child sexual abusers and not pedophiles. “A pedophile is strictly defined as someone who has a sexual interest in pre-pubescent children, this needs evaluation. But they are certainly child sex abusers because they are viewing images of children being sexually abused. A lot of people delude themselves thinking viewing an image is not an abuse. But every time you click on that image, you are complicit in abusing that child,” Vidya explains.
What is grooming?
According to National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, “Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking.
Children and young people can be groomed online or face-to-face, by a stranger or by someone they know - for example a family member, friend or professional.
Groomers may be male or female. They could be any age.
How a secret Telegram group of child sexual predators was busted: A TNM exclusive
Though Jaljith has previously busted Facebook groups with people who had sexual interest in children, he had never expected this kind of depravity.
On November 22, as Jaljith joined the group, the group administrator called ‘MLPM’ was busy sharing a series of pictures of a young girl. The girl (age around 9 or 10) wearing a red necklace and reading a Malayalam magazine can be seen in various states of undress.
The group was a thriving platform for child sex abusers, and photographs and videos of toddlers and older children were being shared constantly. From nude images of children to violent sexual crimes against children, the group regularly shared explicit content for its nearly 360 members.
“The pictures and videos kept coming. They were horrific. Many of these children could have been groomed as they seem to have willingly posed for these pictures,” Jaljith told TNM.
On November 22 itself, Jaljith informed the Inspector General of Crime Branch about the group. These people, most using fake ids and names, were so brazen that the pinned message on the group said, “This is no place for people who are not into child porn.”
Within four days, Jaljith with the help of friends tracked down four mobile numbers through which the administrator ‘MLPM’ was operating.
After observing the group for a month, on Thursday, the Malappuram police arrested a 25-year-old man, who was the administrator or ‘MLPM’. Sharaf Ali, a native of Vandoor in the district, is an M.Com graduate, the police told TNM.
Sharaf Ali has been booked under Section 14, 15 of the POCSO Act and 67 B (ab) of the Information and Technology (IT) Act. He has been remanded to judicial custody in Perinthalmanna.
The depravity
Sharaf Ali is the administrator of 4 groups including a group on wife swapping and another group of porn videos. He was part of 51 Telegram groups, confirmed police.
“The content is mostly catering to Malayalis, the admin used to emphasis that very often. When someone shares foreign porn videos, admin would ask them not to do so and have spoken that we need to share more of Indian content, catering to Malayalis. There was one image of a girl reading a Malayalam magazine,” says Jaljith.
Sharaf Ali
The admin also asked "non-participating" members to share content and engage regularly. He warned them that they would be thrown out otherwise.
“No other porn content is allowed in the group. Admin's number or anybody else's number wasn’t visible to others. You can only see their handle name, which is fake. On one day, at least 30-40 videos/pictures get shared in the group and there is a pattern to how the admin runs the group. The content gets shared maximum from 9 30pm to 11 pm. There were no videos or pictures of boy children, only girls,” says Jaljith.
On November 26, there were discussions in the group that someone has betrayed them and that the police knew about them. The group was then deleted.
Kerala Crime Branch IG Sreejith IPS told TNM that the police were tracing other members on the group. “I can't tell you if the group is active now or not. We want the members to be active, only then can we trace them. I feel we have nabbed the admin in a reasonable time, considering how the encryption in Telegram provides security to its users.”
Should victims be helped?
TNM has seen a few of the images and as Jaljith pointed out, there were series of pictures featuring the same children. Kerala police however says they are not looking at providing intervention.
“We don't know who the kids are; we won’t be looking into that that will be a witch-hunt. In this case, unless the children come forward, we cannot intervene. We haven't gone after these images and we will not be doing so. We don’t even know if they exist or not,” said Sreejith.
Vidya Reddy of TULIR- Centre for the Prevention and Healing Child Sexual Abuse disagrees. “Victim identification is the cornerstone of investigating child abuse or child pornography. It is shocking the police do not believe it is not their concern. It is now well proved very often that a large such images of children sexually abused are a relative of the person who produces the pictures and the child personally needs help,” Vidya told TNM.
Why we are not calling them pedophiles
Through the story, TNM has used word child sexual abusers and not pedophiles. “A pedophile is strictly defined as someone who has a sexual interest in pre-pubescent children, this needs evaluation. But they are certainly child sex abusers because they are viewing images of children being sexually abused. A lot of people delude themselves thinking viewing an image is not an abuse. But every time you click on that image, you are complicit in abusing that child,” Vidya explains.
What is grooming?
According to National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, “Grooming is when someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or trafficking.
Children and young people can be groomed online or face-to-face, by a stranger or by someone they know - for example a family member, friend or professional.
Groomers may be male or female. They could be any age.
How a secret Telegram group of child sexual predators was busted: A TNM exclusive
