Key accused Joshy Joseph used the HIV positive man mostly to stop women from escaping the racket.
Published: Fri 27 Nov 2015, 11:00 PM
Updated: Sat 28 Nov 2015, 10:10 AM
The online sex racket case involving 'Kiss of Love' activists in Kerala has taken a serious turn on Friday with an accused revealing that a key member of the gang had used an HIV positive man to trap women and clients.
The shocking revelation was made by Anoop, an aide of key accused Joshy Joseph. Local media reports said that Anoop had confessed to the Crime Branch team probing the case that Joshy had used his 23-year-old driver, who is an HIV positive patient, mostly to stop women from escaping the racket.
He also presented such women to clients with whom he had some personal grudge. The information about the women suffering from HIV used to be communicated to clients later through phone. Anoop told the police that there were many women, who had contracted HIV infection from the driver, in Joshy's gang.
According to reports, the modus operandi of Joshy was to force the women to have sex with the driver. Those reluctant were offered double the money. The women, who tried to escape the racket, were blackmailed by Joshy by threatening to reveal the matter.
Reports said Anoop had also revealed Joshy's links with a drug mafia in Cochin. Joshy also used this links to implicate youths, who wanted to go out of the gang, in drug cases. Anoop, a private bank employee and computer expert, gave the gang technical assistance.
The police plan to make him approver in the case. The Crime Branch took him to Cochin on Friday and gathered evidence. Joshy, who is known as Achayan in his circles, had surrendered before the investigating team earlier this week.
Joshy claimed that he had no connections with Kiss of Love organisers Rahul Pasupalan and his wife and model Reshmi R Nair, the key accused in the online sex racket case. He said he had seen the two first when he was brought to Pattanakad for gathering evidence.
Meanwhile, three people, including two women, who had initially escaped after knocking down a police person, have been apprehended. Reports said that the two women Vandana and Mubeena were nabbed from Kulachal in Tamil Nadu along with Zulphikar, who helped them escape.
Police said that the two women were arranged by Joshy for the 'clients' tied up by Rahul for a night at a posh hotel near the Nedumbaserry International Airport. The clients happened to be cops who had posed as affluent NRIs to trap the gang.
The women, who came in a car to the hotel, escaped when they saw the police. Crime Branch sub-inspector K T Chacko had suffered injury in the attack. The police investigation so far has revealed that the gang had wide network in the country and abroad to traffic young girls for flesh trade.