PhD scholar gets life term for child abuse in Tamil Nadu
THANJAVUR: The special court for exclusive trial of cases under Pocso Act here on Tuesday sentenced a 36-year-old man to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 6.54 lakh in a case investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) pertaining to the sexual assault of children and the sharing of online child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Following detection of a number of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), including images and videos from Interpol’s child sexual exploitation (ICSE) database, technical and forensic analysis by the CBI narrowed down the accused who uploaded the images as J Victor James Raja, a PhD scholar from a village near Thanjavur.
A case was registered by CBI under various sections of the Pocso Act and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, following which Raja was arrested on March 16, 2023.
Investigation revealed that Raja was sexually assaulting several children, aged between 5 and 18 years, continuously for several years. The CBI in its charge-sheet filed on May 13, 2023, also accused him of publishing and transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form under the IT Act.
