At least 300 images of child pornography have allegedly been found on the laptop computer of a Penn State student, leading police to arrest the man and file charges yesterday, the State College Police Department said.

Manishi Singh, 25, (graduate-physics) has been charged with sexual abuse of children, which is a third degree felony and placed in Centre County Prison in lieu of $125,000 bail.

According to court documents, the charges stem from an investigation that found two computers in Singh's bedroom that contained images and movies of child pornography.

The documents state that a Sony laptop found at the residence contained at least 300 images of young children performing sexual acts on adults and other children.

Singh admitted to using the LimeWire file-sharing network to download the images, according to court documents.

The investigation was a coordinated effort between the Area III Computer Crimes Task Force, the State College Police Department, Pennsylvania State Police and the Ferguson Township Police Department, State College Police Sgt. Mark Argiro said.

The task force, state police and Ferguson Township police could not be reached for comment by press time yesterday.

Argiro said he could not comment on why police believe Singh's computer may have contained the files, how police investigated the allegations or the amount of time spent on the investigation.

"I personally don't have the information on how ... they tracked this guy down or if anyone else is involved for that matter," he said.

According to court documents, task force members and police obtained a search warrant for Singh's residence at 219 Waupelani Dr. on April 12 and found a file with a sexually explicit title to be connected to Singh's computer.

Police were able to search Singh's computers after getting a court order to obtain information from D&E Communications, which is the company that Singh used for Internet service, according to court documents.

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon said the university has not been contacted by police about the alleged crime or investigation.

"[Judicial affairs] wouldn't know anything about it at this point," Mahon said.

Since Singh lives off campus, his personal computer is not affiliated with the university, he said.

"There doesn't seem to be ... a Penn State connection to it," Mahon said.

However, as the case progresses, Penn State may step in, he said.

"At some point, Penn State reviews student conduct off campus, but I imagine if somebody's been charged with an allegation related to child pornography, they're probably not too much worried about judicial affairs at this point," Mahon said.