During the investigation, the students confirmed that they were blackmailed into staying in the sex trade using the secretly shot videos.
Another face of the Popular Front of India (PFI) came open with the arrest of ten people along with prime accused SDPI leader Sharief for his involvement in a sex racket in Kerala and Karnataka.
Acting on a tip, the Mangalore police arrested PFI leader Mohammed Sharief aka Sharief, for his involvement in a sex racket using underage girl students. Sharief runs a real estate business and is a native of Udyawara near Manjeshwaram in Kerala, near the Karnataka border.
Along with Sharief, police arrested Rahmath, a housewife, Mehandi designer Sana alias Asma, a mutton stall owner Umar Kunhi, and a fish stall owner Mohammed Haneef.
According to media reports, police rescued two students from an apartment in South Mangaluru and arrested Shameena, the brothel-keeper, her husband, pimp Abu Bakr Siddique and a "madam" named Aisha. All the arrested were running an organised prostitution racket. Police have arrested two building contractors, Sandeep and Cyprian Andrade, aka Praveen D'Souza. The latter, allegedly, had sexually assaulted the minors.
The racket came to the surface when a 17-year-old victim escaped their clutches and informed her college authorities. Mangaluru Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar told the media on 11th February that the student informed her college lecturer that she was being forced into prostitution and was undergoing trauma and harassment. The college principal took it to the Child Welfare Committee and the local police. After counselling, the girl recounted the ordeal, which led the police to raid the rented premises in Attavar. A team comprising Commissioner of Police, DC (law and order) Hariram Shankar, women police personnel, CWC officials, the Principal of the PU college, women and child development officers and the local child-line officials launched a joint operation to bust the racket.
The CoP said the accused were operating the racket from a penthouse located on the 5th floor of an apartment building in Nandiguda and have been running the brothel from the same premises for two years. Police said a Kerala-based woman was supplying Shameena with clients who preyed on minors. Their clients were mostly from Malabar, and some arrived from other parts of Kerala. Police suspect the CCTVs monitoring could be to honey-trap their rich clients. Police are verifying the call records, WhatsApp, and other details of the accused.
During the investigation, the students confirmed that they were blackmailed into staying in the sex trade using the secretly shot videos.
Police are probing and collecting data about the sex racket using minors. The Karnataka Central Crime Branch (CCVB) has taken up the investigation.
Consecutive governments in Kerala have pandered to radical Islamists and made sure that legal prostitution is banned in Kerala, as per sharia laws. Mangaluru, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, and Manipal, an educational hub, are areas that the minors/ student are targeted by sex racketeers.
Zainaba, Ex-president of NWF, admitted in a sting operation that PFI's sister organisation, Sathya Sarani, carried out massive conversions.
