Youth arrested in Khulna in pornography case filed by US embassy
Police arrested a youth in Khulna over a case filed by the United States embassy in Bangladesh. Nude photos of at least 30 teenage girls from three countries including the US were recovered from the youth's mobile phone and laptop.
Officials involved with investigation of the case said the arrested youth, Md Samir, 20, developed relations with the teenagers using social media app Discord. He would trap the girls and collect their nudes.
Samir, from New Market area of Sonadanga in Khulna, is a second year student of computer science department in an engineering university in Rajshahi. Members of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) arrested Samir from his home on 29 August. Later he was sent to jail after two days remand.
CTTC officials said US embassy in Dhaka’s regional officer Michael Lee on 26 July filed a general diary with Gulshan police station on 26 July. He complained that a Bangladeshi citizen named Samir duped a 13 year girl from California in the US and collected her nude photos. They came to know each other on the Discord app. The US embassy filed the GD as the mother of the girl complained to the homeland security department in the US. Later the DMP commissioner asked CTTC to investigate the case.
Additional deputy commissioner (ADC) Md Saiful Islam of Transnational Crime department, who is the investigating officer of the GD, told Prothom Alo that they acquired detailed information about Samir during the investigation. Later on 21 August, Lee filed a case against Md Samir under pornography control act 2021 with Gulshan police station. CTTC then located Samir and arrested him from Khulna’s Sonadanga.
In response to an email, sent to the US embassy in Dhaka, its spokesperson Bryan Schiller said he would not comment on a sub judice matter.
The case, filed by the US embassy official, Michael Lee said according to the US interior department Samir made friendship with the teenage girl through Discord app in March this year. At a stage of the friendship, Samir asked for a porno photograph of the teenager. Besides, he inspired the girl to appear nude in front of the web cam and took her photos. When the girl became aware of his ill intention, she stopped contacting him. But Samir tried to contact the girl through different ways.
CTTC’s forensic lab ADC Ishtiaque Ahmed examined Samir’s mobile phone and laptop. Speaking to Prothom Alo, he said 164 porno photos of at least 30 teenage girls from the US, Canada and Australia were found in the mobile phone of Samir. Samir said in the interrogation that he had the hobby of collecting those photos. He also said he was not involved in buying and selling those, Ishtiaque Ahmed added.
Though Samir took admission in an engineering university in Rajshahi in 2021, he did not attend classes due to the Coronavirus pandemic, said CTTC official Saiful Islam.
He further said Samir was recently taking preparation to go to Australia. His parents would not allow him to go outside. Because of his loneliness, he beccme addicted to mobile phone. From there he had grown this perverted mentality, Saiful added.