Dark Netted Child Trap

By all outward appearances, Rambhawan, 41, was given to ­leading a regimented, disciplined life. So much so that if you knew his daily schedule, you could set your watch twice a day according to his routine—at 8 am, when he left for office, and then at 2 pm, when he ­returned for lunch. The quiet man—a junior ­engineer with the Uttar Pradesh government’s irrigation department in Chitrakoot—was like any other middle-class man who went about his life earning a living and leading an ordinary life with his wife. The only visible sign of a not-so-ordinary life was his government car—a definite leverage in a small town where a ­‘sarkaari naukri’ is a sign of power indicating that the man is not to be messed with. This is how his dark secret remained well-hidden for over 12 years. On November 16, 2020, Rambhawan was arrested by the CBI and ­accused of sexually abusing at least 70 children in the past 12 years—mostly boys aged between five and 16 years—recording the paedophilic acts and selling the child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the secretive, worldwide dark web.

The victims are spread across three districts of UP—Banda, Chitrakoot and Hamirpur. The ongoing investigations have unravelled ­perhaps the ­biggest reported child sex abuse racket in the country with national and ­international ramifications.

A relatively new department of the CBI—the Online Child Sex Abuse Exploitation (OCSAE) Prevention and Investigation Unit—received the first information in September regarding the abuse of children from Interpol, which trawls the dark web and keeps an eye on ­criminal activities there. “We received a short clip that showed an Indian-looking man ­sexually abusing a child. When we started our investigations, we found several such videos and photographs on sites that have CSAM. Many of them are paywalled. They had been shared on various global sites—Russian, European and American. His face was not even clearly visible,” reveals a CBI officer.

The investigators did not have much to go on. It took them a month to decipher the ­embedded geo-location on the videos. “The IP address led us to Karwi in Chitrakoot, where we arrested Rambhawan,” the officer adds. A search at Rambhawan’s home led to the ­recovery of several gadgets—10 mobile phones, two ­high-end laptops, a digital video recorder, a web-camera, six pen drives, memory cards and a variety of sex toys in addition to over Rs 8.5 lakh in unaccounted cash. He also had PS4, a popular gaming console, at his home where he ­allowed the older children to play games like PUBG.

Rambhawan allegedly used smartphones and gadgets to lure the children into his house. He never stayed in any government accommodation, something he was entitled to, and ­preferred to stay in lower middle-class colonies where he could find easy targets. Many empty mobile phone boxes were also recovered from his home, leading the investigators to believe that he had gifted some of the phones to his ­victims. His wife Durgawati was also ­subsequently arrested for conspiracy and for threatening the victims.

Most of the abused children were from poor socio-economic strata. Their silence was bought by money—Rs 200 to Rs 400 each time. His victims were mostly from his neighbourhood and from construction sites where he was supervising work as a junior engineer, besides children of his relatives, domestic help, ­milkman and tailor. “He doesn’t seem to have spared any child who came near him. He also had the habit of clicking pictures of random children he came across, paying them to take off their pants,” says an investigator.

Some of Rambhawan’s earliest victims have also turned into abusers themselves, ­investigators found to their shock. “One of his first victims, now 22 years old, has also abused children. There could be a few others too,” says a CBI officer. Investigators stumbled upon this while going through electronic evidence ­recovered from Rambhawan’s house. “There are more than 24,000 emails that show Rambhawan was sharing CSAM with other ­paedophiles all over the country and globally. He also used to receive such material. That’s how we found that one of the victims was also sharing child abuse videos and pictures. It seems the accused has managed to create a vast network and it requires painstaking ­investigation at many different levels,” the ­officer says, hinting that more arrests will ­happen as the ­investigations proceed.

Investigators believe that a few other victims too have turned abusers, most probably the ones he gifted smartphones. “A large ­number of mobile phones and laptops were synchronised for sharing of the material. Whenever one user uploaded something, it was automatically shared with all,” the officer adds. The CBI officers claim that they have not come across anything like this before. To understand the psyche of Rambhawan better and to ensure he does not carry any sexually transmitted disease, and also for medico-forensic examination of the children, the CBI contacted the All Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

The Abuser and the Abused

AIIMS constituted a nine-member medical board led by Dr Sudhir Gupta, head of its ­forensic department. Rambhawan was brought to the institute on January 11 for his evaluation. “He has been found to be physiologically normal and does not have any sexually transmitted ­disease,” says Dr Gupta. “However, his psychiatric evaluation has confirmed he is a paedophile and shows no signs of remorse or guilt. In my nearly three-decade-long career, I haven’t come across such a sordid case where children have been victimised to such an extent.” Having ­handled all kinds of complicated cases, ­including the murders of Aarushi Talwar and Sheena Bora, Sunanda Pushkar’s death in ­suspicious circumstances, and the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Dr Gupta says this case is the most gut-wrenching.

Rambhawan’s assessment shows his IQ level is normal and he has no mood disorders. During his psychological evaluation, he remained calm ­during the entire procedure betraying no signs of anxiety. However, when asked to draw ­pictures of a man and a woman, he drew only children, and showed signs of obsession with watching child pornography. “It also appears he was a victim of abuse as a child,” says the ­forensic head.

While it was relatively easy to create the ­psychological profile of the accused, examining the children turned out to be a challenge for both the CBI and AIIMS. None of them or their parents had come forward to complain against Rambhawan all these years. Five members of the medical board visited Chitrakoot on January 13 to examine the victims, aged ­between five years and 22. Twenty-five ­children were examined—all showing clear signs of ­long-term sexual abuse. It was not easy to make the children come out with their abuse stories. Some were scared and a few were in ­denial even as the medical examination ­suggested chronic abuse.

“It took them some time to acknowledge anal penetrative sexual assault by Rambhawan. Some of the victims were abused as many as 50-60 times by the accused. A few of the ­victims told the board members that they ­experienced severe pain and difficulty in ­walking following the assault,” says Dr Gupta. Rambhawan’s wife was allegedly turning a blind eye to screams for help from the children while they were being assaulted. “She used to scold them and lock the door from outside to ensure they don’t escape,” a CBI officer says. This is another reason why she was arrested too.

Clinical psychologist Dr Rajat Mitra, who has worked with several victims of child abuse, says perpetrators often manage to convince their ­victims that there is nothing wrong in the act, and that they were willing and actually ­enjoyed it. “Such abuse stunts the normal development ­process among children. Their psyche can get div­erted into obsessive sexual thoughts. That is one reason why those who have been abused as children sometimes turn into abusers,” he explains. Dr Mitra is not surprised that Rambhawan appea­red calm and showed no remorse. “For him, it is an achievement to have carried out the acts for so long without being caught. It is his definition of a rich and satisfying life. So, he is not troubled or perturbed about it. It has been seen in the case of many paedophiles that their blood pressure actually goes down when they talk about the abuse. It is almost like a high for them,” he says, adding that he doesn’t see any chance of an accused like Rambhawan ever changing his ways. Such perpetrators need psychological treatment and “should be put behind bars for life”, according to him.

Dr Mitra recommends highly specialised and well-trained professionals to carry out ­investigations into such cases as they require special skills. “These are criminal acts that are more complex than even terrorism. The offenders are clever and deceptive, and the scene of crime is the child’s body. It’s not easy to get ­access to the abused child’s mind,” he adds.

Complex Investigation

CBI officers acknowledge that it is indeed one of the most complex cases they have handled. “Handling victims of child sexual abuse is one of the toughest things. Gaining the child’s trust and making him talk is not easy, especially when he has been made to believe that the act was ­consensual. In several cases, even their parents have to be convinced to talk because many of them ­remain in denial,” an officer says.

Once the parents have been convinced and the child has agreed to talk, the investigators have to ensure the presence of a member from the ­district’s child welfare committee as mandated under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. “As we talk to one child, he reveals more names of abused children. Rambhawan’s victims seem to be growing by the day,” the officer says. The CBI started with 24 ­victims, and the list has now crossed 70. In all this, the agency has to maintain secrecy and ensure the identity of a victim is not revealed.

Former IPS officer Amod Kanth, who was closely involved in the enactment of the POCSO Act, says sexual abuse of children is rampant in the country. Citing an extensive UN-mandated study that preceded POCSO, he says India emerged as one of the “rogue countries” as far as child abuse is concerned. “The figures were alarming. The study found that 52 per cent of children are sexually abused in one form or the other. It means every second child is being abused—more boys than girls,” he says.

According to him, the reporting of such cases has been very low in India as is borne out by the Rambhawan case too. “There is a conspiracy of ­silence. Non-reporting of such cases ensures the perpetrators get away scot-free. Child abuse, thus, becomes a part of the system,” he rues. Founder of Prayas, an NGO that works with ­vulnerable children, Kanth says he has come across a large number of cases where victims become abusers. He makes a strong case for providing them proper counselling to mitigate long-term damage to their psyche.

In addition to handling the abused children, the CBI is trying to prepare a water-tight case against Rambhawan. “There are so many layers to the case. There is the aspect of the dark web, which is a bottomless pit. There are hundreds of people who were part of the accused’s network. There is the question of the money recovered from his house. We are yet to establish whether he was selling the paedophilic material or just sharing it. The money could also be because of corrupt ­practices as a government official. We don’t have the time to go into all these aspects as of now. Our immediate priority is to prepare a solid ­charge sheet against him so he does not get out on bail,” the CBI officer says.