Lt Col Jagmohan Balbir Singh being taken to court by police in Mumbai on Friday. (PTI)

Mumbai, May 7: A serving army officer has been arrested for uploading sexually explicit images and video clips of children on the Internet after an Interpol alert, Mumbai police sources said today.

Lt Col Jagmohan Balbir Singh, 42, was arrested yesterday by the cyber cell of the crime branch and booked under section 67 (B) (for publishing or transmitting material depicting children in sexually explicit acts in electronic form) of the information technology act.

A court has remanded Singh, who is working with the army’s supply and transport wing in Colaba, south Mumbai, in police custody till May 12.

Himanshu Roy, the joint commissioner of police (crime), said German police first spotted the pornographic uploads from Mumbai on an Internet server located in the US. They brought the issue to the notice of the Interpol, which informed the CBI in Delhi in March.

“The CBI informed us and we traced the Internet Protocol address (which is unique to each computer) to Singh,” Roy said.

Singh, who is originally from Mohali, was arrested from his Colaba residence where he lives with his wife and two children.

The police have seized Singh’s computer, which had hundreds of photographs and video clips of children in sexually explicit acts, and two hard disks.

“The children, who are from India and abroad, are all aged between three and 10 years,” Roy said.

The police have informed the army about Singh’s arrest. Defence public relations officer Captain Manohar Nambiar said the army would take necessary action after it got Singh’s custody. “Lt Col Singh is on study leave since June 2009. We have moved a bail application so that the case can be dealt with by the army authorities,” Nambiar said.

Singh’s lawyer Milind Sawant argued in court that his client’s custody was not necessary as the police had already seized the required evidence.

“Singh is a serving army officer and a respectable man. He will not abscond. He will fully co-operate with the police,” Sawant said.

If the charges are proved, the army officer may face imprisonment up to seven years and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh.