TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Police are investigating unregistered marriage website Nikahsirri.com. They will prosecute website owner and ‘partners’ for alleged women and child exploitation and trafficking.

“The partners will be penalized. We are investigating their involvement in the website,” Jakarta Metro Police Special Crime Director Sr. Comr. Adi Derian said yesterday.

Agus Wahyudi, 49, the owner of Nikahsirri.com was arrested yesterday morning at his house in South Bekasi.

The website offered ‘auctions’ of virgins and facilitated unregistered marriage, locally known as nikah siri, and allegedly contained pornographic contents and women and child exploitation. The Communication and Informatics Ministry blocked the website on Saturday.

Read: Communication Ministry Bans nikahsirri.com

At least 2,700 individuals joined the website as clients, 300 of whom became ‘partners’. The clients are people who signed up to find a mate through Nihaksirri.com, whereas ‘partners’ are those who signed up to become an unregistered wife, husband, headman, or witness.

The website worked by setting up a meeting between a client and a partner. If interested, a client had to pay a sum of money demanded by their partner. The website owner Agus took 20 percent of the payment. He generated Rp5 million from the business he started on Tuesday last week.

Agus set a minimum age of 14 for prospective partners interested in joining the website. “Based on the requirement, he allegedly committed child exploitation and human trafficking,” police said. Agus is charged under IT Law on pornography, child protection and human trafficking.

ADI WARSONO | ADAM PRIREZA | DEVY ERNIS