KOCHI: The Munnambam police on Friday arrested a vlogger and social activist for sexually harassing a visually impaired underage girl. The arrested person is identified as Jeemon Kallupurackal, 42, a native of Koottickal, Yendayar, in Kottayam district.
According to police, Jeemon was carrying out social activism by joining various agitations and propagating them through social media platforms, especially Facebook and YouTube.
The accused approached the family of the girl, who was a singer, and told them that since he had a good fan following, he could make her popular on social media. He then proposed recording the video of the girl singing and circulating it through social media platforms.
Thus he arranged a video shoot at Munnambam. The girl, accompanied by her mother and brother, reached the place. However, when the mother and brother were not near, the accused took the girl to a room and sexually assaulted her. Later, he threatened to defame her through social media if she revealed anything to her parents and brother. However, the girl, under trauma, revealed the incident to her relatives, who later approached the police with a complaint.
Learning that a case was registered against him, Jeemon went into hiding. Police said the accused was involved in multiple criminal cases. There were also complaints of extortion, threatening to defame people through social media platforms against the accused.