Chennai: Railway police arrested three persons after they tried to sexually harass a 19-year-old girl at Taramani mass rapid transport system station on Saturday night.
According to the police, the girl, a native of Kerala, is a second-year student of an arts college in the city. She reportedly stays at a private hostel in Mylapore.
Around 10 pm on Saturday night, the girl was on platform 2 of Taramani MTRS station with a male classmate. The two soon attracted undue attention.
Three men approached them and on establishing that they were not related, forcibly took them to the ticket issuing office on the pretext of conducting an “inquiry”. The college students did not realise that they were being taken to the workroom on the first floor and not the ticket counter on the ground floor.
The three men reportedly told the two they were station staff. They allegedly made snide remarks about the relationship between the two and demanded R 5,000, failing which they threatened to call their families and tell them about their affair.
The two told the “officers” they had no money and could not arrange Rs 5,000 at such a short notice. Losing their patience, the three men asked the girl to step out, saying they needed to talk to the boy alone. But they beat up the boy and then stepped out looking for the girl, the police quoted her as saying.
On finding her, they pushed her into a lift at the railway station and tried to misbehave with her. The girl, however, managed to break free and found a police patrol car near the station. The patrol car informed the Tiruvanmiyur railway police and waited with the girl till the railway protection force arrived.
Following a complaint by the girl, the Tiruvanmiyur railway police arrested two men, identified as Lokesh and Lucas, from the station. On the basis of their statements, the police later picked up their accomplice, Sriram. Lokesh was identified as the ticketing clerk at Taramani, while the other two are lift operators. Further investigations are on.
