Several activists of ‘Kiss of Love’ movement in Kerala, including its head Rahul Pasupalan, have been arrested by police in Kerala.
According to reports, Pasupalan and his wife have been arrested under various sections of the IT Act.
According to journalist Dhanya Rajendran, the arrest of Rahul Pasupalan is not linked to online pedophilia, as is being reported by TV channels such as Kairali TV. According to Kairali TV, Pasupalan was the admin of ‘Kochu Sundarikal’ — an FB page allegedly linked to exploitation of children.
UPDATE: Kairali TV has updated its report and removed all references to Kochu Sundarikal. However, online portal Marunadan Malayali continues to say that Pasupalan was the admin of the page. (see pic) (UPDATE 2: Marunadan has also removed the reference.)
JournalistDhanya Rajendran said: “To make things clear, as I was involved at some level with the complaint given by a Thiruvanthapuram resident against FB page ‘Kochu Sundarikal’. The complaint was given on September 5 with screenshots.”
“The police traced the admin to a Gulf country. Last time too, the admin of FB page with same name was in Saudi Arabia. This time the police waited. The 27 year old came to Kerala for HIS OWN wedding and logged on to the page, he was arrested,” she said in a Facebook post.
“It is while investigating ‘Kochu Sundarikal’, that police say they came across ANOTHER racket. Rahul Pasupalan and wife who have been taken in for questioning had nothing to do with that page, but they are being questioned for allegedly running another racket. The cops have not yet shown any arrests, so that’s it,” she added.
The exact reasons and sections under which Rahul is being interrogated is not clear.
In a press conference in the evening, the police IG S Sreejith said they believe that Rahul Pasupalan was the key organizer of a prostitution racket.
Rahul has been one of the most vehement critics of the current Congress-led government. He has around 15,000 friends and followers on his personal Facebook profile, and has regularly posted on matters such as corruption and intolerance.
According to Marunadan Malayali, this is how Pasupalan and his wife were arrested.
HOW RAHUL WAS ARRESTED
The police contacted a “known offender,” Abdul Khadar Afzal, pretending to be customers interested in call girls.
Afzal sent the police decoys a photo of model Rashmi Nair, who is also Rahul Pasupalan’s wife. According to the news website, Afzal and the police decoys agreed to a rate of Rs 50,000 per night. (While the story says that the police negotiated with the pimp, the headline of the story says that Rashmi Nair agreed for Rs 50,000. It is not clear which one is correct.)
Including orders for other women, police also booked deals worth around Rs 3,00,000, and reached the Marriot Hotel in Kochi yesterday night.
They first arrested Afzal’s wife there, and used her phone to contact Rashmi. When Rashmi arrived at the hotel with her husband and six-year-old son, the couple were arrested.
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