Raid on online sex racket in Kerala lands social media activists in net

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala police claimed to have busted an online sex racket, and took into custody eight people over Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. In a shock for many, particularly for social media activists, among those taken into custody were Rahul Pasupalan and his wife Reshmi R. Nair, who were in the forefront of the ‘Kiss of Love’ agitation late last year.

The raids were coordinated by crime branch inspector general, S. Sreejith, across different locations in the state. The investigation was taken up after police got wind of a sex racket operating using a popular social media platform.

Four of those taken into custody are women, which includes Reshmi, who is also a model. Pasupalan and his wife had shot into stardom last year after they fought against widespread moral policing in the state and organised the first in a series of ‘Kiss of Love’ protests in Kochi in November 2014. When taken into custody on that occasion, the couple kissed in the police van, too, which became a visual that was shared widely on social media.

Also among those taken into custody were a suspected criminal from Kasaragod, identified as Akbar, and a minor girl, believed to be from Bengaluru.

The Kiss of Love protest against moral policing became so popular that the BBC ran a report about it and a local Malayalam television channel proposed Pasupalan as one of the top ten newsmakers of Kerala in 2014. Kiss of Love was launched by Pasupalan after a video emerged of a gang causing destruction at a restaurant in Kozhikode where some people alleged that “immoral activities” were taking place.

The police operation, which was code-named ‘Big Daddy’, was supported by the cyber cell of the police. After tracking some of the suspects in the racket, police lured them to a hotel in Kochi by posing as customers online, and then got details of the others from them.

News of the raid and custody of Pasupalan and wife triggered another wave of debate on social media, with many who had objected to the Kiss of Love protest last year pointing out that they had known even then that Pasupalan’s movement would not help improve morality in any way.