Kiss of Love couple held for sex racket

[email protected] (News Network)
November 19, 2015

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 19: Six people, including a couple who led Kerala’s controversial Kiss of Love (KoL) protest against moral policing, were arrested by the police for involvement in an online sex racket in Kochi, early on Wednesday.

sex racket

The police said Rahul Pasupalan acted as supplier of girls, including minors, and his wife, model Rashmi Nair, was an agent who also offered sexual services to solicitors.

S Sreejith, IG of Police (Crimes) said the arrests were made after statewide raids under operation “Big Daddy”. Four others arrested have been identified as Abdul Khader alias Akbar, the kingpin of the racket, Lineesh Mathew, Ajeesh and Aashiq. The arrested have been booked under Sections 366A and 370 of the IPC, Section 67 of the IT Act and Section 13 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Two minor girls, identified as sisters, brought in from Bengaluru by Lineesh, a woman based in Lingarajapuram in Bengaluru, are in custody of the child welfare committee.

The investigation team traced the racket through contact information for escort services provided by Abdul Khader on a classified site Locanto. The police tracked down Khader through people who posed as solicitors, leading them to Rashmi. After a deal was finalised, Rashmi arrived at a hotel near the Cochin International Airport with Rahul and their five-year-old son. The couple were arrested at the hotel. Earlier, Lineesh was arrested after she flew in from Bengaluru with the two minor girls.

Two other women who were waiting at the hotel’s parking lot for the decoy solicitors escaped, speeding away in their car, injuring a policeman. One of the women is married to Aashiq. “The operation was planned with extensive digital evidence. Khader has been in contact with Rahul for a year,” Sreejith told reporters. The police seized two cars, a tablet phone, about 20 mobile phones and Rs 8,600 from the accused.

Rahul and Rashmi shot to international fame in November last year after their arrest at Marine Drive in Kochi during the KoL protest, organised against moral policing.

A photograph of them kissing inside a police vehicle became an iconic image for anti-fascist dissent. KoL also ran into opposition from organisations which questioned the idea of “anarchy” it endorsed. On the Internet, the opposition found renewed vigour in wake of the arrest; critics of KoL posted offensive messages on the official KoL page on Facebook.

Late Wednesday evening, the page’s administrators posted a message stating that the protest was a collective uprising against cultural fascism and arrest of two of its participants did not undermine its importance.

Op Big Daddy

Operation Big Daddy also led to the arrest of six others, from different parts of the state, in connection with a Facebook page titled ‘Kochu Sundarikal’ in which photographs of minors were posted along with explicit sexual comments.

The arrested are Ummer, a UAE-based man and administrator of the page, Bijesh, Sony Kurian, Sujith, Chandrakumar and Pradeep.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 28,2020

Nagpur, Jan 28: A 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped and an iron rod was inserted in her private parts by a man in the Pardi area here, police said on Monday.

The gruesome incident took place on January 21 and the accused, Yogilal Rahangdale (52), was arrested from Gondia district, they said.

The accused was working as a supervisor in a spinning mill where the woman was employed as a labourer, the police said.

The woman, her brother, the accused and another girl lived in rented accommodations in Pardi.

Inspector Sunil Chavan of the Pardi police station said that the woman's brother and her female friend had gone to their village on January 21 for some work.

As the woman was alone at home, Rahangdale attempted to rape her in the night. When she resisted, he stuffed a piece of cloth in her mouth, he said.

When she fell unconscious, the accused raped her and inserted an iron rod in her private parts, Chavan said, quoting from the complaint filed by the victim.

She narrated the incident to her brother on January 24 and they subsequently lodged a complaint with the police.

An offence was registered against the accused at the Pardi police station.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
February 23,2020

Panaji, Feb 23: A MiG-29K aircraft crashed off Goa during a routine training sortie on Sunday morning, the Indian Navy said in a statement.

"The pilot ejected safely and has been recovered. An enquiry into the incident has been ordered," the statement said.

On November 16, a MiG-29K trainer flight had crashed after a bird hit, soon after it took off the Dabolim International airport, which functions out of the Indian Navy base INS Hansa.

Both pilots had managed to safely eject themselves to safety after both the engines of their jet failed.

According to data tabled in the recent budget session of the Goa Assembly, every ten days, at least one aircraft landing or taking off at Goa's Dabolim international airport faces dangers involving birds or stray dogs near the runway.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
May 6,2020

A man posed as Superintendent of Police (SP), called up a subordinate police official and asked him to get his mobile phone repaired or face the consequences. But, his bluff was later called and the man landed in lockup.

Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh said the 23-year-old youth, Shubham Upadhyay, is the son of a farmer. He was preparing for competitive exams when his phone developed a snag on Saturday. He tried to reach out to local mechanics, but they were unavailable to fix it due to the lockdown.

Upadhyay used a free caller identification app to call up the in-charge of the Kotwali police station, K. K. Gupta, and threatened to shunt him out, if he failed to swiftly get the work done. Gupta grew suspicious and eventually caught the youth.

n his statement to the police, Shubham Upadhyay said, "On Sunday noon, I tried to breach the district borders to reach Lucknow to repair my phone, but since there was heavy police presence and barricading, I returned home. Later, I installed a free caller identification app in my handset and mentioned the name as SP Azamgarh and even uploaded a photo of the cop to appear genuine."

He first called SHO, Kotwali to get the phone repaired and was told the handset would be picked up from the SP office in an hour. Then, he called a businessman to bring his SUV and hand over his mobile to the SHO.

But when Upadhyay called the police again to suggest a separate meeting point, he raised suspicion. When the SHO tried to confirm the venue, Upadhyay got hesitant and said he would send a peon.

"I suddenly realised something was fishy and rang up the public relation officer of SP Azamgarh, who denied any such order from the SP. When the caller's number was scanned, it displayed the name of SP Azamgarh," said SHO Gupta.

A trap was laid and when the SHO reached the venue, he found one Praveen Shukla sitting in the vehicle. Police got the address of the accused from Shukla and reached Upadhyay's home in Bilariya locality and arrested him.

Upadhyay has been booked under IT Act and for threatening a public servant.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.