‘Kiss of Love’ protest leaders held for running 'online sex racket' in Kerala

On Tuesday, charges were filed against Rahul Pasupalan and his wife Reshmi R. Nair for allegedly running an online sex racket. Rahul and his wife Reshmi were leading the protests and spearheaded the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement in Kochi last year. The campaign used kissing as a form of protest to oppose the restrictions on civil liberties and strict moral policing by authorities. It was heavily criticized by Hindu right-wing parties such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Sena. [caption id=“attachment_1785307” align=“alignleft” width=“300”]  Around 50 people were arrested for participating in the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest last year. PTI[/caption] They couple was arrested after the police received a tip off and they were among the eight who were arrested on these charges, however, The News Minute reports that 11 people were arrested in relation to this case. The News Minute also reported that four among the 11 taken into custody were women and one minor. They also reported that while they were being taken into custody, three people escaped in a car including two women and a man. It is alleged that the couple were in cohorts with a group involved in supplying minors and young children to pedophiles, reported The Hindustan Times. The state police’s cyber cell stumbled upon the racket during their investigating a complaint on a Facebook page, ‘Kochu Sundarikal’ (Beautiful girls) that surfaced carrying pictures of school girls, reported The News Minute. The police followed up on the complaint by a resident of Thiruvananthapuram who was also associated with the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement. The police followed leads by one particular woman who was involved in sex work and tracked down two minors who had been brought in from Bengaluru, reported The News Minute. The complaint was filed by another Facebook page, ‘Sexually Frustrated Mallu’, members of which, were also part of the ‘Kiss of Love’ group, according to The News Minute. Five people were arrested on the basis of the complaint including the page administrator, a man from Northern Kerala who was operating out of India but was in India at the time, according to The News Minute. Infamous gangster, Ali Akbar was one among those arrested and is allegedly involved in many sex-trafficking cases; two girls from Bengaluru were also arrested, according to The Hindustan Times. The police said that they have taken the couple in for questioning and will decide the next course of action. Rahul Pasupalan’s friend told The News Minute that the police have to prove their case before declaring statements and that Kerala police had previously fabricated the ISRO spy scandal case using a sex scandal angle.