BENGALURU: The Central Crime Branch has begun questioning the ‘Kiss of Love’ couple from Kerala who were allegedly involved in trafficking minors.
But police will have to wait a while to take their questioning to the next level as getting extended custody involves some legal procedures.
Rahul Pasupalan and Rashmi R Nair were arrested by the cyber crime police in November, in a statewide operation named Operation Big Daddy, on charges of being involved in an online sex racket. The couple, who gained popularity as the organisers of the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest in Kerala, have been brought to Bengaluru for questioning as the minors who were trafficked are said to be from the city.
Kerala police had arrested one Akbar, said to be the main player in the online sex racket. According to police, Akbar used to entice customers by showing photos of Rashmi. After negotiating a deal with them, he would lead the customers to minor girls.
Central Crime Branch officials said the questioning is in the preliminary stage at this point. “We will be producing them before the designated POCSO Special Court on Saturday and then we will have to take them back to Kerala, where they will be produced before the court again. We will have to get them back after that to subject them to detailed questioning,” an official said.
CCB is not clear if anything else needs to be done on the legal front, and officials are ready to wait it out rather than question the couple in a hurry.
In Operation Big Daddy, eight people were nabbed in Kochi while another seven were arrested from Ernakulam, Malappuram, Palakkad, Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram.
Rahul and Rashmi shot into the limelight last year when they organised the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest against moral policing. The peaceful protest gained a lot of attention and subsequently spread to other parts of the country.