Large bruises on her back, thighs and legs, the skin with visible blood clots telling the tale of torture that she had to endure for over 20 days, the 27-year-old woman says she managed to escape and narrate the horrifying tale. She was subjected to brutal torture, sexual assault and blackmailing by her partner in his Kochi apartment. The woman, a Kannur native, filed a police complaint on April 8, after escaping from the man, but the police have still not arrested him.
According to the police, the 33-year-old man named Martin Joseph, a share trader and the woman had been in a live-in relationship since last year's lockdown. Tired of the violence in the relationship, the woman went back to her home in another district, the man asked her to come back, threatening that he will publicise her nude videos. After the woman came back due to the threat, she was brutally tortured physically, the woman told Mathrubhumi News.
“He used to tie me to the bed and hit me with a mop, broom and belt. He used to continuously beat me in the same areas. He has made me drink his urine and water from the toilet, used to pour hot water on top of my bruises and to stop me from sleeping, he used to put chilly powder mixed water in my eyes,” the woman recounted to Mathrubhumi. She added that Martin had threatened to kill her and that she escaped following that.
“I was no longer bothered that he would leak the videos to my family. I somehow wanted to reveal this outside. I took a knife and ran away from there,” she said. Though the woman straightway escaped from the apartment and went to the police station, she did not file a police complaint at that time. “I was afraid whether he would be coming behind me to attack,” she says. She gathered the courage to file a complaint only one month later, on April 8.
The FIR, which TNM has accessed, was registered based on the woman’s complaint filed on April 8 and it says that the woman was confined by Martin from February 15 to March 8. The complaint also stated that the man looted Rs five lakhs from the woman. A case has been registered against the accused under the Indian Penal Code sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 344 (Wrongful confinement for ten or more days), 376(Punishment for rape), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation).
Though it has been over a month now since the woman filed a police complaint, the accused is yet to be arrested. The incident gained media attention, after the woman came out revealing the photos of the injuries inflicted upon her. Reacting to the media, Kochi Police Commissioner Nagaraju CH stated that the police have formed a special team to nab the accused. But police state that it is only now that the police came to know about the grievous injuries inflicted on the woman. “We will investigate and arrest the person very soon,” said Commissioner Nagaraju CH.
Police has also issued a lookout notice on the accused:
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