Life term for paedophile Ph D scholar Victor James Raja for sexual assault and using children for online pornography

Ph.D scholar Victor James Raja was found to have sexually abused children and minors for years and used them for child pornography. The CBI arrested him last year and he got a life term from a POCSO special court

Hyderabad: A Ph.D scholar, who was sexually exploiting children in the age group of five to 12 years and digitally recording the sexual abuse, was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment by a POCSO court in Thanjavur of Tamil Nadu, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) press release said on Tuesday.

The convict, Victor James Raja was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 6.54 lakh in the case pertaining to not just sexual assault of minor children but also sharing and exchanging of online Child Sexual Abuse Material, the Bureau said.

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Many images and  videos were found from INTERPOL’s Child Sexual Exploitation (ICSE) database. Technical and forensic analysis led to the identity of the accused Victor James Raja, a Ph.D. scholar. A case was registered on March 7,  2023 against him under relevant provisions of POCSO Act, 2012 and Information Technology Act, 2000. The Ph.D scholar was arrested March 16, 2023.

The CBI found that Victor James Raja was subjecting male and female child victims, aged between 5 and 18 years to sexual exploitation for the last couple of years. The acts of sexual exploitation included penetrative sexual assaults, digitally recording the sexual abuse, criminal intimidation of minor victims. He was also found to have forced and instigated minor victims to perform sexual activities with other minor victims and also with him.  Victor James Raja was also using victim children for pornographic purposes.

CBI investigation revealed that accused was sexually assaulting several victims continuously for couple of years.

The Bureau filed a chargesheet against him on May 13, 2023 before the Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under POCSO Act, Thanjavur. He was charged for commission of offences including sexual assault, penetrative sexual assault, aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using child for pornographic purposes and abetment under POSCO Act; rape of women under 12 years of age and criminal intimidation under IPC and publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc., in electronic form under Information Technology  Act.

The trial of this case was conducted in a time-bound manner with the assistance of Special PP, POCSO Court, Thanjavur and a total of 34 witnesses were examined/cross examined and various documents & articles were exhibited.  The Lead Trial Court had also awarded monetary relief of Rs. four lakh to each victim. Pertinently, the Ld. Trial Court had earlier ordered for interim relief of Rs. two lakh each to the child victims on August 24, 2023, the press release added.