Chennai: A 23-year-old youth, who threatened to kill the girl he was stalking if she failed reciprocate his love, was arrested after a complaint was preferred on behalf of the girl with the city police. The boy is said to have threatened to kill the girl in the manner in which Swathi was murdered at a railway station. The youth, identified as Selvakumar (23), is a native of hidambaram, who is working in Chennai as a casual worker in the Koyambedu market.
He was picked up by the police on Wednesday and remanded to judicial custody.On Tuesday, the girl student's mother lodged a complaint with Koyambedu police stating that a stranger was stalking her daughter and that he had threatened her that she would meet with the same fate as that of Swathi if his love went unreciprocated. Pursuant to her complaint, Selvakumar was booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 294 (B) (sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad or words, in or near any public place), and 506(ii) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act.
The youth stays in rented accommodation he shares with friends in a room in Nerkundram. During interrogation, he admitted to stalking the girl and threatening her. He claimed that he saw the girl a month ago when she came to a shop in the neighbourhood and had been on her trail since then. "Due to the extensive news coverage on Swathi, several women harassment complaints are pouring in likening their cases to Swathi. Some do it deliberately to strengthen their case," observed a senior police official who is privy to the investigation.
