Chennai: The Kumbakonam police arrested four men who allegedly gang-raped a 24-year-old Delhi girl in the small hours of December 3 in Kumbakonam.
According to the police, Priya* a native of Rajasthan and a resident of Delhi had taken a train from Chennai and reached Kumbakonam around 12 am on December 3. She was in town to join a bank as a trainee. Stepping out of the Kumbakonam railway station, she hired an autorickshaw to reach a hostel in the town.
The driver reportedly took a circuitous route. Sensing something fishy, she questioned the driver and also called up a friend over the phone. The driver immediately dropped her near the Chettimandapam and fled the scene.
Left alone in the streets, she reportedly asked a youth in two-wheeler for a lift. He obliged and another man on a bike began trailing the first motorcycle. Police said the duo took the woman to the Kumbakonam by-pass road and reportedly sexually assaulted her. Subsequently, two more men joined them.
After assaulting the woman, one of the men accompanied her to the main road and hired an autorickshaw for her in which he also travelled and got down midway.
As the autorickshaw dropped her at her house, Sangita noted down the auto's registration number. She started work on Monday and shared the incident with her colleagues and lodged a complaint with the Kumbakonam West police station.
The police, with the help of the registration number of the auto given by Priya, traced the four men and arrested them on Wednesday.
Kumbakonam DSP Sengamalakannan said" The man who travelled in the auto after sexually assaulting the woman had used the autorickshaw driver's phone to make calls to his friends. That is how we traced the accused. The auto driver also helped in identifying the man. We are now searching for the first auto driver who left the woman in the streets and absconded".
The Kumbakonam police arrested S Purushothaman (19), S Anbarasan (20), S Dinesh (24) and M Vasanth (21), and registered a case under Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 366 (kidnapping), 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
The victim on Wednesday recorded her statement with the Judicial Magistrate, Whereas the accused were under police custody.
