The Tamil Nadu police have apprehended four people including two minors for the gangrape of a woman hospital worker in Vellore. The four, along with another person, allegedly conned the woman and her friend into getting into an auto they were travelling in, during the early hours of March 17. The victim initially did not approach the police; it was the police who found out that the crime had happened while apprehending two of the accused during a drunken brawl. The men told the police they were fighting over money they had robbed from someone, and also mentioned that they had raped a woman before the robbery.
On March 19, the police intervened in a drunken brawl between two of the accused in Sathuvachari in Vellore, outside an ATM. The two were taken to the Sathuvachari police station, where it was found that the duo were having an argument over dividing Rs 40,000 they had allegedly robbed. On investigating, the police were shocked to hear them mentioning “rape”. On further interrogation, the duo reportedly confessed to raping a woman and robbing her and her male friend.
According to a press release by the police, the victim and her male friend were on their way back to a private hospital where they worked, after watching a film. The two had stopped an auto, in which there were five persons. As the auto driver claimed it to be a ‘share auto’, they climbed in and told the driver the location. The vehicle took a wrong turn and the driver claimed that there was a barricade enroute. The auto took a second wrong turn. By this time, the duo had started raising an alarm. At this point, they were attacked and taken to a secluded spot, where the five men raped the woman. They also took the man to an ATM nearby and made him withdraw Rs 40,000, which they then took before fleeing the spot. They also took the victims’ mobile phones and gold jewellery weighing two sovereigns.
TNM contacted Vellore district DIG of Police Dr Annie Vijaya who said that the police had contacted the bank from which the two accused had robbed money. On receiving the details from the bank, the investigating team got in touch with the account holder who revealed that he had been robbed and his friend had been raped by the men. The DIG further added that the investigating team then spoke to the victim and instilled confidence in her to file a complaint on March 22.
In the state Assembly on March 23, Chief Minister MK Stalin said that four of the five accused have been nabbed by the investigating team. The arrested accused have been identified as Santhosh, Manikandan and two minors.
A first information report (FIR) has been lodged based on the woman’s complaint under sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person), 376 (D) (gang rape), 376 (E) (punishment for repeat offenders), 395 (punishment for dacoity), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 506 (ii) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with section 4 (penalty for harassment of woman) of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman (TNPHW) Act.
This incident comes right after another case of sexual assault was reported from Tamil Nadu. A Dalit woman was allegedly gangraped in Virudhunagar, repeatedly over a period of seven months, by eight persons, including three minors. One of the men accused in the case is a DMK functionary. According to the police, the accused threatened to leak private videos of the woman and continued to rape her over months. All eight accused have been arrested in the case.