Lured With Gifts, Video Games: UP Engineer, His Wife Abused Minor Boys For Over A Decade

Last Updated:February 22, 2026, 08:01 IST

Ram Bhawan and Durgawati were sentenced to death in Uttar Pradesh for running a decade-long child-porn operation, abusing boys as young as three.

Ram Bhawan (50) and his wife, Durgawati (47), were sentenced to death on Friday under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by a special court in Uttar Pradesh.

For a decade, the couple ran a child-porn operation, involving minor boys. For the world, they led an ordinary life — a rented room in Chitrakoot, a posting as a junior engineer in the state’s irrigation department. However, what lay behind the curtains was a horrifying scandal, with boys as young as three years old as victims.

Ram Bhawan and his wife made 2 lakh videos involving dozens of victims, the prosecution stated in the trial concluded this week.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the case from late 2020, gave a detailed account of the couple’s modus operandi.

LURED WITH GIFTS, VIDEO GAMES

According to a CBI spokesperson, “Ram Bhawan used to apply different forms of modus operandi on children, including access to online video games and giving money or gifts to allure them".

The targets were boys from Banda and Chitrakoot districts as well as surrounding areas. Ram Bhavan also promised them “mobile phones, chocolates, and watches", the prosecution said during the trial.

Having filmed the minor boys, he then continued to threaten them for many years, according to special public prosecutor Saurabh Singh.

VICTIMS SUFFERING THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA 

During the probe, it was found that Ram Bhawan, a resident of Naraini town in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district, had been living in a rented room with his wife in Chitrakoot.

The offences were committed at his rented accommodation, with his wife allegedly assisting him and threatening the victims’ family members into silence or compromise.

“During the investigation of the case, it surfaced that the accused persons had committed various forms of perversity, including aggravated penetrative sexual assaults against 33 male children, some of them as young as three years of age," a CBI official said.

Some reports even claimed victims were more than 50. During the trial, at least 25 testified among the 74 witnesses.

“Some of them have remained admitted in the hospital. A few of the victims developed a squint eye. Victims are still suffering from psychological trauma caused by the predators," the officer said.

According to the central probe agency, recording the assaults were not perverse alone, rather, it was a commercial enterprise for the couple.

Ram Bhawan used to sell what he filmed. Investigators had been monitoring child sexual abuse content circulating online when they came across materials linked to the couple.

The trial, which began in June 2023, culminated with the conviction of the couple under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSO Act for offences including aggravated penetrative sexual assault, using children for pornographic purposes, storage of pornographic material involving children, abetment and criminal conspiracy.

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