KOZHIKODE: In a major breakthrough in the alleged morphing of women’s photographs by studio staff at Vadakara, the investigation team on Monday arrested two men in the case. Owners of ‘Sadayam’ studio Satheesan and Dinesh were taken into custody from Wayanad, where they were absconding. However, the police are still clueless about the whereabouts of the prime accused, Bibeesh, who morphed photographs for pornographic purposes.
Women Cell Circle Inspector C Banumathi who is heading the probe team said the accused have undergone a preliminary interrogation and they confessed to the crime. “However, more details can be found only after a detailed interrogation,” the police officer said.The arrested were later produced before the court and remanded into judicial custody.
It was last week, the Vadakara police registered a case against a staff of ‘Sadayam’ studio for allegedly morhping photographs of women for pornographic purpose. It was suspected thousands of photographs taken during various marriage functions in and around Vadakara region were used for this purpose. The incident come to light when a relative of a woman noticed her morphed photograph on a social media site. On receiving the information, she lodged a complaint at the police station.
After news about the incident spread, many women in the region lodged complaints against the studio employee for misusing their photographs.The police had conducted a raid at the studio and seized computers and other equipment used for the pornographic purpose. Over 40,000 photographs of women taken from various marriage functions in and around the region were found stored in a hard disk seized from the studio. However, the investigation team is clueless whether more photographs were misused by the culprits. In yet another case of an alleged incident of photograph morphing, a girl from Nadapuram approached Rural police chief M K Pushkaran alleging police inaction in a complaint against a youth for blackmailing her by using morphed photographs.
As per her complaint, a youth who is suspected to be a native of Palakkad repeatedly blackmailed by using her morphed photograph taken from her Facebook account. A police complaint was lodged at the Nadapuram station six months ago. However, no further action was taken by the local police so far.
Action committee to take out march
An action committee has decided to stage a protest march to the Vadakara police demanding a detailed investigation into the case.