By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch has filed the chargesheet against model-cum-activist Resmi R Nair and her husband Rahul Pashupalan in connection with the online sex racket case. Crime Branch IG S Sreejith — who headed ‘Operation Big Daddy’— filed the chargesheet at the POCSO Court in Thiruvananthapuram. The operation had helped the agency bust the racket allegedly involved in trafficking women and minor girls and using them for prostitution. Resmi and her husband were arrested from Nedumbassery by the Crime Branch team in 2015.

As per the chargesheet, the couple — who were part of the Kiss of Love campaign — had trafficked minor girls from Benguluru to Kerala and used them for prostitution. Apart from the duo, 11 others are also named accused in the case. The duo has been charged under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code, IT Act and POCSO Act. The chargesheet said adequate digital evidence was available against the accused.

Operation Big Daddy was launched to curb online prostitution and escorting activities in the state. Resmi and Rahul were among those who were first picked up by the Crime Branch sleuths. The probe on a Facebook page promoting paedophilia led the cops to the online racket. Following this, the model and her husband were arrested. The cops maintained that the two played a key role in running the racket.

The chargesheet was submitted four years after the FIR was registered. Crime Branch sources said the delay happened as they were awaiting reports from C-DAC.“There were a lot of digital evidence to be collected. Some of them were to come from Forensic Science Lab, while many others were to be recovered by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.

C-DAC was approached because the encryption level of data in devices were high. FSL tools were not enough to decipher them and hence, C-DAC’s service was taken. The fee asked by C-DAC was quite high and the government sanction was required for releasing the amount to them. There was some delay in getting the government sanction,” sources said.

‘No evidence to prove allegations’

Resmi R Nair wrote on her Facebook page that she will take further legal actions after going through the chargesheet. “There is no evidence to prove the allegations levelled against us. Hence, the first step would be to move a discharge petition in the court,” she wrote. She also took a jibe at the Crime Branch for delaying the submission of chargesheet.