The police has arrested a couple that was the face of the ‘Kiss Of Love’ campaign that was held in Kerala and later held in other parts of the country and has accused them of being part of an online sex trade racket.
Rahul Pasupalan and his wife Reshmi R Nair were the faces of the Kiss of Love campaign which was started in 2014 to protest against moral policing in the state.
“Rahul and Resmi have allegedly helped a group which is into supplying children for paedophiliacs. It’s too early to comment on their roles in the group,” Deputy Inspector General S Sreejith was quoted as saying in a Times of India report .
The police still hasn’t explained what role the duo have had to play in the sex racket in connection with which they have been arrested.
The couple in a Facebook post. Source: Rahul Pasupalan’s Facebook page
The police has said that an FIR had been registered over the existence of a Facebook page titled ‘Kochu Sundarikal’ (little beauties) which had photos of schoolgirls on them, reports the Hindustan Times . The police also said they were also probing an online sex racket that was operating through websites and other social media platforms, reports the Times of India.
As part of the probe, called ‘Operation Big Daddy’, police officials went undercover from October and as part of it arrested several ‘procurers’ who were part of the sex trade racket, reported The Hindu .
Police officials reportedly pretended to be rich clients searching for women and on Tuesday cracked down by arresting four women and four others who were reportedly part of the racket.
Among those the police has arrested in the case include an individual identified as Akbar, who is said to be a gangster, apart from Pasupalan and his wife.
IBTimes has reported that “t he ‘Kiss of Love’ organisers had earlier restricted the couple from participating in their events. Rahul and Resmi were also not invited for the first anniversary of the November 2014 protest at Marine Drive, Kochi, that took place earlier this month.”
The ‘Kiss Of Love’ campaign was a controversial one with Rahul defending it at the time in a blog saying: ” The reason why we choose a kiss as the mode of protest – it was a simple answer to the fascists who attacked a restaurant just because a couple kissed there. The answer was “We will kiss even on the road -if my partner and I are willing, who the hell are you to bother?”
However, after news of the arrest spread, ‘Kiss of Love’ trended on Twitter with many mocking the campaigners.