The CBI on Tuesday carried out a coordinated search at 76 locations across 14 states and Union Territories in connection with allegations of online child sexual abuse.

The agency had filed 23 cases against 83 people over allegations linked to online child sexual abuse and exploitation. All of them have been accused of posting and circulating objectionable content online.

A CBI official said 80 teams began the raids and search operations on Tuesday at premises linked to the accused and suspects.

The searches were conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

Sources said that during the investigation a WhatsApp group had come under the scanner and its 30 members had been named as accused. The accused shared materials linked to child sexual abuse, which had been further circulated online by others.

The CBI has been receiving references related to the dissemination of child sexual abuse material from Interpol and other international and national organisations.

“The agency has been coordinating with international law-enforcement agencies to detect and investigate sexual abuse of minors, especially in the cyber space,” a CBI spokesperson said.

In January, the CBI had arrested two men, including a BTech engineer identified as Neeraj Kumar Yadav, for the alleged sale and purchase of child pornography videos through Instagram and other social media platforms.

According to an official, the accused had been advertising sale of objectionable material, including child pornography, on Instagram against payments to be made through digital applications such as Paytm and Google Pay.

Last year, the CBI had arrested an engineer from Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh on the charge of sexually exploiting 50 minors, recording videos of the crime and circulating them on the dark web.

In 2019, the CBI had set up an online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Prevention Unit in Delhi.