Lieutenant Colonel Jagmohan Balbir Singh who was arrested for uploading and downloading pornographic material involving children, seems to have been living a double life.
Singh often visited a forum on the online social-networking site Facebook, where children discussed their pre-examination tensions. Singh was also trying to raise money for charity, ironically, for children through the social networking site
He used two different email IDs to access his two accounts on Facebook. The cyber crime cell officers who are investigating the case had examined both the accounts closely to find out if Singh was in touch with people involved in child pornography.
“We are looking into the kind of information that Singh posted on his Facebook accounts. We are also checking whether he networked with people regarding child pornography on the site,” said Mr Deven Bharti, additional commissioner of police, crime.
While Singh used one of the accounts for networking and had 12 people in his friend list, the other account had no friends on the list. However, in the “likes and interests” section of the second account, Singh had a link of a discussion forum accessed by several thousand children from India by the name “Damn exams coming... I make a timetable… clean my desk. Ok I’m tired now, gnyt”. The forum is visited by
children and teenagers who discuss pre-examination worries and how to deal with it. The forum is book-marked by 14,422 Facebook users. Singh however did not participate in the discussion.
In the account that Singh used for networking, he had recently joined the group “Army Public School, Udhampur”.
Ironically, Singh had also made a personal request to his friends to vote for Chase community on Facebook that is involved in charity for underprivileged children.
“Pranam, pls give a helping hand and vote for this charity, it’s the most deserving cause, so help educate and enlighten this place by voting, the details will unfold as you proceed, jus take the 1st step...” Singh wrote.
Last year, the German police while looking for Internet-related offences, had come across the obscene photos and clips of children being uploaded on a pornography site from Mumbai.
They brought the issue before the Interpol, which alerted the Central Bureau of Investigation in Delhi in March 2010.
The CBI passed on the information to the Mumbai police, who arrested the Army officer and seized incriminating objects from his house.
Singh, who hails from Punjab, was attached to the Army’s supply and transport wing in Colaba, South Mumbai.