Kuonar comes from an affluent family.
AB Wire
BENGALURU: Kaushik Kuonar, of Bengaluru, the kingpin of MMS clips on social media in India, showing unwitting girls in compromising and sexual positions and acts, being raped and gang raped, as well as illegal videos of children, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation, on Thursday.
CBI sources said Kuonar was arrested during a search operation in the evening as part of a probe which was undertaken upon directions from Supreme Court. Over 500 secretly shot porn clips of gullible girls in compromising positions were found by the agency during the search, reported the Press Trust of India.
The arrest came on the heels of the Supreme Court having taken suo-motu cognizance of a letter sent by a Hyderabad-based NGO to Chief Justice of India HL Dattu along with a pen drive containing 9 clips – three of which subsequently were traced to Kuonar.
CBI used sophisticated forensic software to track the origins of these video messages which went viral on social messaging platform. In connection with one clip, the agency has already arrested two persons from Odisha.
The sources said that during searches on Thursday, the CBI team was surprised to find high-end editing software, stealth cameras and other equipment which was allegedly being used for creating these videos, PTI reported.
Kuonar belongs to a well-to-do family living in an affluent locality in Bengaluru, though further details were not forthcoming as yet. The sources said he had allegedly made a profession out of creating such titillating videos of girls which he posted on the Internet.
“Every click or every visit (to a webpage) for viewing these clips would apparently reward him with money,” an official told PTI while giving details of the initial questioning.
CBI has also registered six FIRs of alleged gang rape and one FIR of rape, and abduction, against Kuonar.
The Times of India reported the CBI, as part of its hunt for Kuonar, also stumbled upon an organized syndicate circulating obscene MMS clips, and arrests of those involved in the nefarious activity have been made in several states, including West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
The Times had first reported on April 6 that an organized gang was behind the leak of videos depicting women indulging in sexual acts and even kids being beaten up.