A youth from Malappuram, who was posing as Malayalam child actor Sanoop Santhosh on messaging platform WhatsApp, was nabbed by the police on Saturday.

22-year-old Rahul, a native of Ponnani in Malappuram district, had been posing as actor Sanoop on WhatsApp for the past few months. The accused had called several female actors in the Malayalam film industry pretending to be Sanoop.

According to the police, the profile picture of the WhatsApp account created by Rahul was that of Sanoop and his sister Sanusha, who is also a Malayalam actor. As per officials, the accused used to send lewd text messages to various Malayalam female actors. According to reports, the actors had informed Sanusha that her brother was calling them and asking for the number of other female actors.

A case was recently registered by Sanoop’s father in Kannur Town Police Station, after he learnt that someone was posing as Sanoop on WhatsApp.

On inquiry it was found that the Malappuram native was using a SIM card that he had stolen two years ago. “Some of the messages the accused sent were found to be vulgar. He has now been let out on bail,” an official from the Kannur Town Police Station told TNM.

The accused was charged with section 66 (C) (Punishment for identity theft) and 66 (D) (Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.

As per reports, no complaints were filed by the female actors earlier.

15-year-old Sanoop made his debut in the Malayalam film industry through the movie Philips and the Monkey Pen in 2013. His lead role as Ryan Philip in the children’s film received a lot of appreciation. Sanoop won multiple awards for his performance in the movie, including the Kerala State Film Awards for Best Child Artist. He also won the Kerala Film Critics Association Awards for best child artist for the film.

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