Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police have intensified action against child pornography in view of the increase in sexual offences against children across the state. On Saturday, police arrested 10 people from across the state in simultaneous raids and registered 46 cases in connection with the alleged viewing and sharing of objectionable content related to children.

Police said they have also seized 123 electronic devices. The raids were conducted as part of the Kerala Police's operation P-Hunt to crack down on child pornography. Four persons were arrested from Malappuram district while two each were nabbed from Idukki and Kochi city, and one person each was apprehended from Alappuzha and Ernakulam rural area, police said.

Earlier in May, a special unit of Kerala police arrested eight people including IT professionals under Operation P-Hunt. As part of the operation, 449 locations in the state were raided on May 21 with the help of 'cyber cells, technical experts and so on'. At least 212 devices were seized and 133 cases were registered under Section 67B of the IT Act (punishment for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit acts, etc., in electronic form). Mobile phones, modems, hard disks, memory cards, laptops and computers containing "graphic and illegal videos and pictures of children" were seized.

Operation P-Hunt is a special drive of the Kerala Police CCSE (Countering Child Sexual Exploitation) Team to curb the crimes against children. According to law, viewing, distributing or storing of any child pornographic content is a criminal offence and can result in, up to five years of imprisonment and up to Rs 10 lakh fine.

(With PTI inputs)