LUBBOCK, TX—A 53-year-old League City, Texas, man, Nilanjan Brahma, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 21 months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in October 2014 to one count of attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor, announced John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Brahma must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on July 6, 2015.

According to plea documents filed in the case, from approximately April 25, 2011, through February 19, 2012, Brahma engaged in a series of communications, via messaging, texting, and telephone, with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old female, “Jane Doe,” who represented that she lived in Lubbock, Texas. In fact, Jane Doe was an undercover officer with the Lubbock Police Department.

On April 25, 2011, Brahma chatted with Jane Doe and sent her nine photographs. Five of those photographs depict an adult male engaged in sexually explicit conduct and are considered obscene.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative, which was launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/ and click on the tab “resources.”

The Lubbock Police Department, the FBI, and the League City Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy prosecuted.