Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 15
The next bail hearing of the person arrested by the Cyber Crime Police Station, Nagaland Police Headquarters (PHQ), on May 18 in Kohima, reportedly after an alert from Interpol Stockholm, has been fixed for next week after brief proceedings on June 15.
The accused was held on charges related to child pornography after the case was brought to the attention of the Nagaland Police by Interpol Stockholm through the CBI International Police Co-operation Unit (IPCU).
The Nagaland Police, via the State DIPR, informed on May 24 that the accused was found to be involved in Rooms/Groups within the "Wickr app," where members shared and posted explicit child pornography content.
Meanwhile, in a bail application in the Gauhati High Court Kohima Bench, the counsel for the accused admitted that the latter uses the app but denied the charges.
The accused is ‘possibly charged with being involved in uploading obscene material' of a 17-month-old Swedish international, the counsel submitted before the single-judge bench of Justice Ajit Borthakur.
The charges, apparently, were based on the phone number linked with the app.
However, the counsel asserted that the accused never "uploaded nor shared any (obscene) material."
During the proceedings, it was further revealed that as the alleged victim was a minor, provisions under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, were added to the charges.
After the submission as well as the request for an early hearing by the counsel, the judge fixed the next date on June 22, noting that the case is sensitive due to the involvement of a foreign national.
In the meantime, the judge added, "Let the crime branch produce whatever is available."
According to its website, Wickr is an end-to-end encrypted “service that enables secure one-to-one and group messaging, voice and video calling, file sharing, screen sharing, and more.”
On June 25, 2021, Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services and rebranded as AWS Wickr.
