THRISSUR: Five persons, including a woman, have been arrested in connection with a case in which a woman and her male companion were abducted from a lodge in Thrissur by a group posing as police officers, taken to Tamil Nadu and assaulted. Two of the accused allegedly sexually assaulted the woman at an unoccupied house in Tiruppur.
The arrested are Devi, 27, a native of Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu; Thomas Priyadarshan Deva, 27, a native of the Nilgiris; Raghupathi Raj, 20, from Dindigul; Shankar, 20, from Viranapetti in Karur; and Balraj, 31, from Kadavur.
The arrests were made by a special investigation team led by Assistant Commissioner T R Rajesh on the directions of Thrissur City Police Commissioner Nakul R Deshmukh.
The incident occurred on September 22, police said. According to police, the incident stemmed from a relationship between a married Tamil Nadu-based man and a woman from Malappuram.
Devi, the man’s wife and the first accused, had objected to the relationship. However, the man continued the relationship. After learning that he had taken a room with the woman at a lodge in Thrissur on September 22, Devi sought the help of Thomas, the second accused.
The group of six then reached the lodge in Thrissur in two cars. Thomas misled the lodge staff by claiming that they were police officers who had come to take into custody two persons involved in a ganja case. The group then entered the room, assaulted the man and woman and forcibly took them away in their cars.
After reaching Tiruppur, the group took the two to an unoccupied house and assaulted them. They were subsequently separated and taken away in different cars, police said. The car carrying the woman was taken to an isolated location, where Thomas and Raghupathi Raj allegedly sexually assaulted her.
The woman, who was in an exhausted condition after the incident, was taken to a hospital by the accused. She subsequently managed to escape from the hospital after evading the accused and informed the police.
Following the information, a special team was formed on the directives of the Thrissur City Police Commissioner. Thomas was arrested from the vicinity of Kochi airport, while the other accused were arrested from Tiruppur, Coimbatore and Palani.