The Kerala Police arrested eight people, including “Kiss of Love” campaign organizer Rahul Pashupalan and his wife Resmi R Nair on Wednesday for allegedly running an online sex racket.
According to the officials, the arrests were part of a month-long undercover operation, code named ‘Operation Big Daddy’, launched in October.
Rahul and his wife Reshmi led the protests and organized a campaign called the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement in Kochi last year. The campaign used kissing as a form of protest to oppose the restrictions on civil liberties and strict moral policing by authorities. It was criticized by Hindu right-wing parties such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and Hindu Sena.
According to Zee news, Rahul and Reshmi were helping a gang that supplied children to paedophiles.
The cyber cell of state police registered an FIR after a Facebook page called Kochu Sundarikal surfaced carrying pictures of school girls. Among the arrested were a notorious gangster Ali Akbar, allegedly involved in many sex-trafficking cases, and two girls from Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore).