Chennai: An alleged criminal debaucher, who reportedly extracted money and sexual favours from several women by threatening to upload their visuals clandestinely shot on his mobile phone, has landed in jail.
According to police, Damodaran, 27, posed as a CBI officer while living as a tenant at Vannanthurai TM Maistry Street in Adyar. People there believed him as he was driving around in a Lancer car fitted with a red revolving light on top.
But his game was up when the Tiruvanmiyur police arrested him on Tuesday following a complaint from a woman inmate of a working women’s hostel functioning from the same building alleging that he filmed her bathing on his mobile phone.
He was hiding behind a ventilation window to carry out his disgusting act, the woman claimed. Police said the woman in her bath had sensed some strange sound coming from behind the window and decided to step out to investigate. She was horrified finding Damodaran filming on his mobile phone. She raised an alarm and reported to her hostel manager Ganga, who confronted Damodaran.
Putting up a brave front, the latter not only denied voyeurism but also accused the woman victim of casting aspersions on a CBI officer’s character. By then, he also quickly and quietly deleted the woman’s video from his phone.
While Ganga and the others wavered in doubt, the victim stood her ground and even threatened to commit suicide if the cops were not called in. Ganga phoned the police and a team arrived from the Tiruvanmiyur police station.
On being closely questioned, Damodaran admitted his crime but insisted it was a first time offence. He said he had bagged a CBI job after paying bribe and was in fact waiting for promotion after taking a departmental test.
However, further enquiries in the women’s hostel and surroundings revealed to the police that Damodaran could have cheated “at least five women” who had stayed there earlier. He had allegedly extorted money and sexual favours from them after ‘trapping’ them on his mobile phone, police said, adding that he had posed himself as a cop, a lawyer or an IT executive “depending on the situation”. He was actually a plus-two failed fraudster.
Police said Damodaran was seven when his father Murugan moved into Chennai. The two have been running money-lending business in the city. A search in his premises led to the seizure of government emblems, two sets of police uniform and the Lancer car, which the police believe were used to hoodwink some affluent persons in the city and cheat them of money.
Accusing him of forgery and cheating, besides violating the Tamil Nadu Women Harassment Prevent Act, police produced Damodaran before the 18th metropolitan magistrate at Saidapet, who remanded the accused to 15 days judicial custody.
