Police today arrested Shifu Sunkriti cult group's founder Sunil Kulkarni in connection with alleged human trafficking and obscenity on social media.
Kulkarni was arrested by Malad police in the wee hours today. He will be produced in a court later in the day, a senior official of the Mumbai crime branch said.
The Bombay High Court had yesterday asked the city police to lodge an FIR against Kulkarni.
The high court gave the directions while hearing a plea by a city couple alleging that their two daughters, aged 23 and 21, were ensnared by the cult group Shifu Sunkriti, which operated on social media, and its founder Kulkarni.
Kulkarni has been booked under various IPC sections including 370 (trafficking of person), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison), 420 (cheating) and 292 (sale of obscene books), the official said.
He has also been charged under IT Act sections 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) and 67(a) (publishing or transmitting in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act or conduct), he said.
The parents of the two girls claimed that they approached the police repeatedly since December last year to seek action against the cult group but in vain.
According to the parents, their daughters left home early this year allegedly under the influence of Kulkarni and his group.
The petition alleged that Shifu Sunkriti was a "sex and drug racket" that contacts young girls on Facebook and other social networking sites.
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