CHENNAI: A 23-year-old woman who allegedly killed a man to protect herself from an attempted rape was let go by the police on grounds that she had acted only in self-defence. The police said the woman, a mother of two, was struggling to free herself from the clutches of the deceased when she pushed him.
The man, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, is believed to have hit his head against a rock and died on the spot. After preliminary inquiries pointed that the woman had only acted in her self-defence, Tiruvallur police invoked section 100 of the IPC (right of private defence) and released her on station-bail.
According to the police, the locals reported a man found dead in a fish farm near Minjur on Wednesday afternoon. His body was retrieved and sent to the Tiruvallur Government Hospital for post-mortem. A case of suspicious death under Section 174 of CrPC was registered. From his appearances, police suggested that he could be a migrant worker. On investigation, it was found that the man had been stalking one Lakshmi (name changed).
Woman kills rapist in self-defence
The woman lived with her husband and two children in a small room-like structure in the property and the family was employed at the fish farm. A senior police officer said,
“On Wednesday, the man sneaked into the farm, allegedly gagged the woman and dragged her to a secluded place in the farm where he tried to force himself on her.” As the man held her from behind, Lakshmi pushed him, following which he slipped, and hit a rock on the ground. The ground was slippery from rain the previous night.
When the man fainted, Lakshmi dragged the body and dumped it on the roadside, after which she returned to the farm and informed her husband. He and other workers rushed to see the man only to find villagers standing around the man lying unconscious.
On information, the Minjur police rushed to the spot, and alerted the ambulance. He was confirmed dead due to concussion by the para-medic staff. Inspector Vadivel Murugan said, “We inquired about the suspect in the neighbourhood and they had spotted him for a couple of days in the area. But the residents confirmed that he was not employed in any company there.”
Earlier in January this year, police had invoked the same section to allow a 19-year-old woman to walk free after she killed a man who attempted to rape her.