Kiss of Love couple recalls life after ‘sex racket’
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rahul Pasupalan and Reshmi R Nair’s world turned upside down in a matter of a few minutes — thrust into TV screens and newspaper headlines across the country and then thrown in jail for more than a year.
That was in November 2014. Free Thinkers, a group led by short filmmaker Rahul, had invited people to Kochi’s Marine Drive on November 2 to hug and pucker up against moral policing in a campaign called Kiss of Love. Rahul and his wife Reshmi were leading the protest.
Predictably, the campaign outraged right-wing parties and some women and student outfits who turned up to protest against it. However, the activists went ahead, holding hands, hugging and kissing in public, braving threats of physical violence by vigilante groups.
The police took more than 100 activists into custody for what they described as a preventive measure to maintain law and order. Unmindful of the melee, Rahul and Reshmi continued to kiss, even as they were sent away in a police van.
What started as a local event to make a point spread to other parts of the country. However, it was soon forgotten and so were Rahul, 29, and Reshmi, 27.
But for the couple, those 15 minutes were just the beginning of a long ordeal that continues till today. On November 18, 2015, police arrested them in Kochi as part of a chain of raids codenamed Operation Big Daddy and charged them with running a sex racket involving minor girls.
Rahul was in jail for 14 months and Reshmi for 10 months before they were released on bail.
In their first-ever joint interview to the media, the couple vowed to fight the case till their names were cleared.
“The police couldn’t find enough evidence against us so far. That is the reason for not filing the charge sheet even 15 months after our arrest. I think they will drag the case for another two years,” Reshmi said, adding that she was shattered by the media trial.
“The media celebrated our arrest by providing titillating stories without considering our rights,” she said.
Reshmi was also upset that friends abandoned them since their arrest.
“Those who were part of the campaign deserted us during the hour of crisis. They could have waited for the judgment before writing us off. We haven’t done anything wrong,” she said. Rahul said their opponents used “Reshmi’s photos as a bikini model to claim that we were into flesh trade”.
Inspector general of police (crime branch) S Sreejith, who had led the raids, said police will file the charge sheet soon. “…The police have to analyse around 60 electronic devices, including mobile phones and SIM cards…It is a huge task,” he said.
The probe didn’t make much headway after Sreejith was transferred last year. He, however, returned as the crime branch IG. Rahul and Reshmi, parents of a six-year-old son, are now resigned to a long legal battle.