Hasbrouck Heights Man, 43, Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse Material Charges, Faces 20 Years

A 43-year-old Hasbrouck Heights man has pleaded guilty in federal court to accessing child sexual exploitation material involving a prepubescent minor, admitting to a crime that investigators say included images of a child of roughly three years old being sexually abused by an adult man. Abhishek Vijayakumar now faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on January 6, 2027.

Vijayakumar entered his guilty plea on August 12, according to an official press release by the U.S. Department of Justice. According to court documents, he accessed the material with intent to view it in March 2024, months before local investigators zeroed in on him. As reported by WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM, law enforcement found more than 200 images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct during the investigation.

The case did not begin in federal court. It started as a tip that landed with local cyber crime investigators nearly two years before the plea was entered.

How a Local Tip Turned Into a Federal Case

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Cyber Crimes Unit received a tip about Vijayakumar on September 26, 2024, which led to a court-authorized search of his electronic devices, according to county prosecutor statements relayed by The Ridgewood Blog. That investigation was led by Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella and Chief Matthew Finck, the outlet reported.

Local authorities arrested Vijayakumar on October 21, 2024, in Paramus, New Jersey, and remanded him to the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, per county law enforcement statements reported by The Ridgewood Blog. He was initially charged in New Jersey state court with third-degree possession of child pornography under N.J.S.A. 2C:24-4(b)5(b)(iii), the outlet noted. The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Cyber Crimes Unit went on to assist the FBI Newark office's investigation into the case.

Case Moves to Federal Court

The matter was elevated to federal jurisdiction and formally docketed as USA v. VIJAYAKUMAR, Case No. 2:25-cr-00229, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on April 10, 2025, according to court docket records published on PacerMonitor. Trial Attorney Jessica L. Urban of the Justice Department Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section is prosecuting the case, per the DOJ.

The prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 to coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement against child exploitation, according to a DOJ report cited by New India Abroad. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said the guilty plea represents another step forward in the continued fight against child sexual exploitation, and emphasized that federal law enforcement will keep targeting both the supply and demand ends of exploitation networks, according to the DOJ statement.

'Bittersweet Victory,' FBI Says

Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy of the FBI Newark Field Office called the guilty plea a “bittersweet victory” because it acknowledges the severe victimization of the minors depicted in the recovered media, according to the Justice Department. The FBI Newark office investigated the case out of Newark, New Jersey, working alongside Bergen County's cyber crimes detectives during the device analysis phase.

When Vijayakumar is sentenced in January, the presiding federal district judge will determine his prison term after evaluating statutory factors and advisory parameters under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, according to the DOJ. It remains to be seen whether prosecutors and the defense will file sentencing memoranda advocating for specific prison terms, or whether the final judgment will include supervised release or registry requirements.