Raigad Police have registered four separate FIRs against four people, including a minor, for allegedly uploading or circulating child sexual abuse material through Instagram accounts.
The cases were registered on September 25 at Murud, Dadar Coastal, Khalapur and Khopoli police stations. Police have invoked provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Information Technology Act.
The action followed cybercrime inputs routed through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal in at least one of the cases.
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I4C alert led Khopoli police to suspect
Senior Inspector Sachin Hire of Khopoli police said an FIR was registered after Alibaug cyber police received a complaint through I4C and the NCCRP portal.
The information included the mobile number allegedly linked to the account. Police say the suspect had posted a video containing child sexual abuse material on April 18, 2026, at around 4.50 am.
The suspect is from Sajgaon in Khalapur taluka.
Police visited his residence but were told by relatives that he was currently living in Pune.
Because the alleged offence carries punishment of less than seven years, police served a notice under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita rather than immediately arresting him, according to the report.
Separate FIRs concern posts dating back to 2024
The remaining cases relate to different Instagram accounts and different dates.
At Khalapur police station, an FIR was registered over a video allegedly posted and circulated on December 8, 2025. The accused is reported to be a resident of Millak Nagar, Alwat Residency, in Khalapur taluka.
Murud police registered another case against a minor boy from Bhawani Pakhadi in Nandgaon. Police allege that the minor posted a child sexual abuse video on November 3, 2024.
At Dadar Coastal police station, an FIR was registered against a man from Sitamai village in Pen taluka for allegedly posting and circulating similar material on December 18, 2024.
The cases therefore concern separate alleged uploads rather than one common incident.
Police have not publicly said whether the four accused are connected to each other.
Why old social media posts can lead to cases years later
The delayed FIRs show how digital evidence can remain traceable long after content was first uploaded.
Social media platforms can retain account records, identifiers, login information and other metadata that investigators may later obtain through legal requests.
India’s cybercrime reporting infrastructure also allows authorities to connect complaints and platform reports to particular phone numbers, accounts or locations.
That means deleting a post does not necessarily remove the underlying digital trail.
In child sexual abuse material cases, law-enforcement agencies also receive information from platforms, cybercrime portals and specialised monitoring systems that may result in action months or years after the original upload.
Sharing material is itself an offence
A common misconception is that only the person who originally created abusive material can face criminal liability.
Indian law also penalises publishing, transmitting, storing or circulating child sexual abuse material in certain circumstances.
Section 67B of the Information Technology Act specifically addresses electronic material depicting children in sexually explicit acts, while the POCSO Act contains separate protections against sexual exploitation of children.
Investigators therefore do not necessarily need to establish that a person created the original video before examining whether that person knowingly uploaded or circulated it.
The individual role of each accused still has to be proved through evidence.
Minor accused will be dealt with under juvenile law
One of the four accused is a minor.
That case will have to proceed under the Juvenile Justice framework rather than in the same manner as cases against adult accused.
The fact that a minor has been named in an FIR does not mean he will automatically face adult criminal proceedings.
Juvenile Justice Boards determine how cases involving children in conflict with law should proceed, depending on age, offence category and other statutory requirements.
The identity of the minor must also be protected.
Social media platforms remain central to detection
The Raigad cases come amid wider scrutiny over child sexual abuse material circulating through social media platforms.
Earlier this month, Meta faced government questioning in India over its handling of child sexual abuse content and committed to report child-safety matters directly to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
That broader push could lead to more cases where old posts are identified through platform reports and routed to local police for investigation.
The four Raigad FIRs show how that enforcement chain can work: a digital alert is generated, account information is traced and the relevant local police station registers a case based on jurisdiction.
For police, the next stage will be to establish who controlled each Instagram account, whether the material was knowingly uploaded and how the videos reached the accused.
The allegations remain subject to investigation and have not been proved in court.
What this means for you: Never download, forward or repost child sexual abuse material, even if it appears in a private group or is shared “for awareness”. Preserve the link or account details and report the content through the platform and the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal instead.
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