KOCHI: The police have arrested the alleged kingpin of an online sex racket, who used to take pictures of unsuspecting women from their social media accounts and post them in a free classified website to lure clients.
The accused was identified as Sanoj (34), of Vellaparambil house, Pavaratti, Thrissur. He was arrested following a probe initiated on the basis of a complaint lodged by a Palarivattom native that her picture was posted in a “porn site” by an unidentified person.
The police said that the woman, who was working abroad, received an alert from her friends about the incident. A special squad traced the phone number given along with the photo on the site to an estate employee at Gudaloor in Tamil Nadu.
The sleuths had a tough time tracing the accused as he had taken the SIM number on a fake identity. They later approached him as customers by tracking him on WhatsApp and the social media. The accused asked them to rent out a lodge while promising that he would send a girl. The police took the girl into custody and her interrogation revealed his identity.
The police said that the accused had taken houses on rent where he used to lodge the girls. He was arrested from a flat near Kaloor on Thursday evening. The police seized expensive mobiles, sex pills and toys from the flat. They also found large transactions in his bank account.
