A 39-year-old TV journalist has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a teen girl in Chennai. The case came to light last week, where a police inspector from Ennore was also arrested.

According to reports, G Vinoba sexually assaulted the 13-year-old girl on three occasions when she was under the control of her traffickers Madhan Kumar and Sandhya. Madhan Kumar, Sandhya and six others were arrested last week in connection with the case, along with inspector C Pugalendhi and a businessman Rajendran. Vinoba was picked up from his house in Thandiarpet, based on the confession of the survivor. The police told Times of India that Vinoba was also running a financing business and is known to Madhan and Sandhya through his money lending business.

The girl is a relative of one of the accused. The crime came to light after the survivor’s mother approached the police as the accused did not allow the girl to meet her mother. Finally when the survivor met her mother, she narrated her ordeal and her mother filed a complaint with the police. Based on the investigation, the police arrested Madhan Kumar, Sandhya, Shahitha Banu, Selvi, Maheshwari, Vijaya, Karthik and Vanitha. During the probe, Sandhya allegedly told the police that the girl was sent to one of their clients Rajendran, where inspector Pugalendhi had also sexually assaulted her, in exchange for not reporting the crime. It also came to light that Madhan Kumar had allegedly sexually assaulted the girl after pushing her into sex work.

The police also arrested Rajendran and remanded all three -- Vinoba, Rajendran and Pugalendhi -- under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The others who were arrested were remanded to judicial custody for working as agents and soliciting ‘clients’. A special team was also put in place to probe the crime.

The Chennai Police had suspended Pugalendhi from service after his involvement in the crime was exposed.