CHENNAI: A 30-year-old man has been arrested on charges of raping a 19-year-old woman with mental illness near the Marina swimming pool on May 13. The police said the accused had befriended the woman through Instagram and later lured her to the beach, where the alleged assault took place.
According to the Triplicane All Women Police, the accused was identified as Imran, an employee at a fish stall from Chintadripet. The woman, a resident of West Mambalam, had left her house on May 13 without informing her family, like she frequently did, police said.
She travelled to Egmore and waited near a theatre, where Imran, whom she knew through social media, picked her up on his two-wheeler. He then took her to the sandy stretch behind the Marina swimming pool. After spending several hours there, he dropped her near Fort Railway Station in the early hours of May 14.
The woman later travelled to Mambalam Railway Station, where she reportedly became acquainted with an autorickshaw driver who helped her find temporary work at a garment shop in T Nagar. She stayed at a working women’s hostel for a short period.
Police said the woman continued travelling over the next few days and visited places including Arakkonam, Katpadi, Vellore, Tiruppur and Coimbatore with people she had met on Instagram. At one point, two men allegedly took away her mobile phone and abandoned her, following which she returned to Chennai, the police said.
On May 19, the woman’s father located her near Mambalam Railway Station and brought her home. After she complained of stomach illness, she was admitted to Kasturba Gandhi Government Hospital in Triplicane, where doctors suspected sexual assault and alerted the police. Imran was then arrested and remanded in judicial custody. Further investigation is under way.
