Kerala man held for 'sexually exploiting' over 50 women

Agencies
June 1, 2019

Kottayam, Jun 1: A 25-year-old man has been arrested in Kerala for allegedly sexually exploiting over 50 women, he had befriended over social media, by blackmailing them with their morphed obscene photos, police said on Saturday.

Pradeesh Kumar from Areeparambu near Ettumanoor was arrested on Friday on the basis of a complaint by a woman, they said.

Explaining his 'modus operandi,' police said Kumar used to target women over social media and got their phone numbers.

After establishing contact with the women, mostly housewives, and understanding their family problems, he used to create fake Facebook accounts posing as female and got in touch with the husbands of his potential targets, police said.

The accused used to take screenshots of the chats their husbands had with the fake accounts and forwarded it to their wives to convince them about their spouse's "illicit relationships."

After being ensured that the women had started distancing themselves from their husbands, the accused grew very close to the victims and then invited them for video chats. He then allegedly blackmailed the women with their morphed obscene pictures and sexually exploiting them, police said.

He had reportedly developed code languages to ensure that the women themselves were chatting with him on various social media platforms. If they failed to type the code before chatting, Kumar allegedly hurled expletives at them.

If the women refused to comply with his orders, the accused threatened to send their morphed obscene photographs to their husbands, police said.

Following his arrest, morphed obscene photos of many women have been recovered from the accused's laptop, they said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 18,2020

Mangaluru, May 18: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada today reported two more covid-19 positive cases. One is a 30-year-old man and the other is a 55-year-old woman.

The man, a resident of Karopady in Bantwal, had returned from Raigad in Maharashtra and is under quarantine.

The woman, a resident of Yeyyadi, had fever and hence visited Wenlock hospital for test. She was diagnosed to have Severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) symptoms and later tested positive. She has been shifted to ICU. 

With this the total number of covid-19 positive cases in the district rose to 54. Among them 48 are from Dakshina Kannada and six patients are from other districts.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 8: The Karnataka government is in favour of lifting the coronavirus lockdown in districts which remained free of the virus infection, subject to approval from the Centre, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said on Wednesday.

In an interview to, he also said the state intended to relax liquor sales, stopped since the 21-day lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, after April 14 in a bid to increase state revenues.

The chief minister said the state's legislators would take a 30 per cent salary cut.

According to officials, there were no COVID-19 cases in 12 districts of the total 30 districts in the state.

As on Wednesday, there were 181 COVID-19 cases in the state, including 5 deaths and 28 discharges.

"If the Prime Minister suggests to states to take decision (on lock-down) based on the situation in their respective states, my position is to take a call (on roll-back) in districts free from COVID-19", Yediyurappa said.

This is to allow people to go about their business and move about within the district and not from one district to another, after April 14, after taking the approval of the Prime Minister, he said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 11,2020

Bengaluru, June 11: Amulya Leona, a college student, who was charged with sedition for raising "Pakistan zindabad" slogans in Bengaluru, has finally been granted bail. 

The court had denied her bail yesterday, saying she might abscond. But her lawyers had been pursuing another way of getting her out of jail where she has spent nearly four months.

Ms Leona's advocate, Prasanna R, said that the delay of the state in submitting a chargesheet in the case beyond the stipulated time meant she was eligible for "default bail".

"The default bail application was moved before the magistrate under whose jurisdiction the alleged crime was committed. The chargesheet has not been submitted by the state within 90 days. So default bail has been granted. We had moved the default bail plea on May 26 and again on May 29 when the court told us the earlier mail IDs had been disabled. A physical application was filed on June 2. The state filed the chargesheet on June 3," the lawyer said.

While the state tried to argue that they were entitled to an extension in the time allotted, the court hearing this aspect of the case gave an order favourable to Ms Leona. The process is on to release her.

The arrest of Ms Leona during a rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA in Bengaluru had led to a debate on the use of sedition charges.

The woman on a Facebook post had also said "zindabad" to many countries including India and Pakistan. She did also try to chant "Hindustan zindabad", but was soon silenced and whisked away. She was accused of sedition, causing enmity between communities and causing deliberate mischief.

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