TIRUVANNAMALAI: Two policemen attached to the Tiruvannamalai East Police Station have been arrested and suspended from service on the charge of gangraping a 26-year-old woman, a native of Andhra Pradesh, near the Endal bypass road in Tiruvannamalai early on Tuesday.
The accused, Sundar and Suresh Raj, grade 1 and 2 constables, respectively, have been sent to judicial custody, the Tiruvannamalai police said.
According to G Dharmarajan, DIG, Vellore Range, the incident took place when the woman, along with her stepmother, was on a trip to the Arunachaleshwar Temple in Tiruvannamalai on Tuesday.
Sources said the two women were travelling from Chittoor on a fruit-laden vehicle, when the two policemen, who were on night patrol, stopped the vehicle and asked the women to get down for a check.
The two constables later allegedly thrashed the survivor, dragged her to a secluded bushy spot nearby and raped her.
DMK govt must hang its head in shame: EPS
On Tuesday morning, the stepmother, with the help of some local residents who found the survivor on the roadside, called the 108 ambulance and sent her to the Tiruvannamalai GH for treatment.
The woman and her stepmother were then moved to a safe location. DIG Dharmarajan told TNIE that a case has been registered at the Tiruvannamalai All Women Police Station for abduction and gang rape under Sections 87, 70 and 68 of BNS.
Meanwhile, calling the crime horrific, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said it was the pinnacle of the collapse of women’s safety in the state.
“What answer does this puppet CM have for such an atrocity, committed not by criminals on the street, but by the very police officers entrusted with protecting women? The DMK government under MK Stalin must hang its head in shame. The people of TN will not forgive a government that fails to protect its daughters,” he said.