Thiruvananthapuram: A young website designer working with the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) has been arrested on charges of uploading on porn sites photogrpahs of women shot on the street. Soon after the arrest of Mahesh Bhaskaran, 26, of Muttathara in the city, a senior police officer who took the action was shifted, sparking allegations that people in high places are out to protect the accused.
Allegations have been aired that the transfer of Cantonment Circle Inspector M Prasad to the Vigilance department following the arrest was an act of revenge.
Indications are that the accused is connected to 'important' people.
Mahesh, a temporary staff at C-DIT, was assigned important tasks, including designing websites for the Kerala Shopping Festival, Malayalam Mission and Kerala Bhasha Institute and the C-DIT website itself.
It is understood that the police was under pressure to keep the news of his arrest hidden from the media. The media wasn't informed when the accused was produced in court.
Mahesh was arrested after the High-Tech Police investigated a complaint lodged by a student of the Government Law College. The accused had uploaded over seven photos of her coming out of the Saphalyam Complex at Palayam.
He is accused of having uploaded on porn sites over 40 photos of women shot on the city's main roads, footpaths, buses and at textile shops. Mahesh used a fake name, and is also known to have uploaded nearly 30 porn videos.
Interestingly, almost half of the photos that were uploaded were taken on the footpath in front of the Secretariat, where there's round-the-clock police surveillance.
