Indian national sentenced for filming his acts of child sexual abuse

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A 30-year old man from India has been sentenced in Florida to more than 20 years in prison for filming acts of sexual abuse he committed on an 11-year old child.

United States District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell has sentenced Divesh Valanju to 21 years and 10 months in federal prison for producing child pornography.

Valanju had pleaded guilty on April 11 this year.

According to court documents quoted from in the July 25 press release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Valanju met an 11-year old child via two online messaging apps.

He lied about his name on the apps and exchanged sexually-explicit images with the child.

On two occasions, Valanju arranged to meet the child at Max Hasse Park in Collier County.

After the victim’s parents dropped her off at the park, purportedly to meet her friends, Valanju picked the child up, drove her to a motel and filmed sex acts that he performed with the child.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Innocent Images Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Schmitz.

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, the press release said.

Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.