Varanasi: An alert from a global internet platform that flagged the transfer of child porn videos led to the arrest of Zahid alias Rustam, 45, in Azamgarh for raping minor sisters. The same digital alert system helped Gambhirpur police arrest another accused on Monday for raping a 14-year-old girl.Azamgarh SP Anil Kumar said the cyber crime cell uses alerts from platforms like Google and Meta to track digital crimes. A CyberTipline Report from the US-based National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) helped locate Rustam, who had circulated child sexual exploitation material (CSEAM) after raping minor girls.Police traced Rustam through IP address tracking, digital log analysis, social media scrutiny, and matching of his digital footprint. When Gambhirpur police surrounded him on June 5, Rustam opened fire to escape but was caught after sustaining a bullet injury to the leg in retaliatory firing.Investigators recovered over 30 video clips of minors being sexually assaulted. Police said Rustam shot some of the videos himself. He allegedly lured minor girls to a tubewell room and assaulted them there. Police are now working to identify survivors to build a strong case against him.In the second case, the father of a 14-year-old girl filed an FIR on Sunday accusing Ashish Kumar Prajapati of Tahbarpur of rape and criminal intimidation. An FIR was lodged under relevant BNS sections and the Pocso Act.Kumar said the cyber crime cell and Gambhirpur police traced Prajapati using a similar platform alert and arrested him from the Kishunpur Kashinath area on Monday. His mobile phone was seized for digital evidence.
