CHENNAI: A 29-year-old woman, S Ashwini, who was allegedly attacked and robbed by two men at her house near Kancheepuram on Wednesday night, died without responding to treatment at a government hospital in Chengalpattu on Sunday.
While early media reports suggested sexual assault, the police ruled it out following investigation. One of the two men has been arrested, and the police are on the look out for the other person.
According to sources, Ashwini was employed in a private company in Oragadam and had been living alone. Her husband, a caretaker at a government guest house in Chengalpattu, used to come home only once a week. Their two children, aged 10 and 3, were staying with their grandparents in Vaiyavur, 17 km away.
Sources said the two men had consumed alcohol from a Tasmac outlet located 300 metres from Ashwini’s house in Vella gate around 11 pm on Wednesday and broken into her house. “When Ashwini returned home from work, the two men attacked her with an iron rod lying in the house,” a police officer said.
When she fell unconscious, the men dragged her from the hall to the kitchen, left her there and fled. It was only in the next afternoon, that family members suspected something was amiss when Ashwini did not respond to calls, came to her house and found her in a pool of blood.
The police were alerted and Ashwini was rushed to a government hospital where she died on Sunday night. On Monday, her family members and residents of the area staged a protest outside the local police station demanding swift action against the accused.
Ashwini’s family claimed that the gold jewellery she was wearing had been stolen, but it was not clear as to how much gold had gone missing, a police officer said. “We have arrested the second accused, Tamilvanan (29). But we are unable to gather more information as he and the prime suspect had gone separate ways after the incident,” the officer said. The prime accused is a history-sheeter with multiple cases of theft and robbery against him, the police added.