CHENNAI/VIJAYAWADA: A day after a 30-year-old woman software professional was attacked and waylaid, the city police on Wednesday apprehended a youth aged 20 based on suspicion. Police recovered the victim’s vehicle, which was also taken away by the ‘suspect’, from a Tasmac outlet at Semmanchery.
A senior police officer said the staff at the liquor outlet alerted Semmanchery Police about the abandoned vehicle.
“Police rushed to the spot, recovered the vehicle and alerted Pallikaranai Police Station, who confirmed it to be that of P Lavanya, the victim,” the officer said.
Lavanya is still in a critical condition in a private hospital at Perumbakkam. Police suspect that three men could have been involved in the crime.
On Monday night, Lavanya was heading to her sister’s house at Nookampalayam from office when the incident occurred. However, on Tuesday, police said the victim’s sister Nisha Jaiganesh had informed them that she was unaware that Lavanya was coming to her house.
To reach her sister’s house, the victim had taken the Thalambur-Perumbakkam road. As she was negotiating a turn, an unidentified man allegedly attacked her with a sharp object, suspected to be an iron rod. The woman suffered a cut on her face and was dragged across the road and abandoned in a vacant land.
The attacker escaped with her three-sovereign chain, iPhone and vehicle. The victim managed to come to the main road, but fell unconscious and was spotted by a few passersby on Thalambur-Perumbakkam Road who alerted police.
Police took the girl to a private hospital, where she underwent a surgery. When being taken in the patrol vehicle, she had informed the personnel that a man attacked her. A native of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, Lavanya was living in a rented house at Thalambur.
Vijayawada police offer help in Chennai mugging case
Vijayawada police extended their support to the family members of techie P Lavanya Reddy, who was assaulted and robbed by unidentified persons in Chennai when she was heading home after work on Monday late night.
After this incident, serious concerns have been raised about the safety of software employees working at IT Corridor in Navalur.
The 28-year-old techie hails from Telaprolu village near Vijayawada and her parents are farmers. Upon learning about the incident, Vijayawada police contacted their Chennai counterparts, on Wednesday morning and sought details of the investigation.
Police further said that they would also send a team in case of necessity. “We will give support to the girl and her family. We felt bad after hearing the ghastly incident,” said a police official in Vijayawada.
When the police tried to contact Lavanya’s parents on phone, they were unavailable to respond. “They reportedly left for Chennai on Tuesday afternoon after being informed about the incident by their elder daughter,” the official said.
An unidentified man bludgeoned Lavanya with an iron rod, knocking the woman off the scooter that left her with multiple facial fractures. The assailant further dragged her across the road to a bush and decamped with three sovereign gold chain, mobile phone and scooter.