Chennai: The City police who tracked and arrested a serial offender for his alleged involvement in several burglaries were in for a shock. The 26-year-old man told investigators that apart from indulging in burglary and knifepoint robbery, he had also raped several home-alone women at knifepoint.
A senior police officer confirmed to DC that the suspect did confess about raping women. However, police are checking the veracity of the claims and the process to identify and get statements from the supposed victims is underway, police sources said. Police had already received a complaint from one of the victims.
The arrested person was identified as Arivazhagan, a native of Mathur in Krishnagiri district. A special team arrested him on Thursday after tracking him for more than a month, according to police sources.
Apart from molesting and raping the woman, he also recorded the act in his mobile phone, police said. He targeted lone women in residential neighbourhoods in South Chennai and indulged in the act, police sources said.
Police are expecting victims to come forward and lodge complaints following his arrest. A special team was formed to trace Arivazhagan after he waylaid a software engineer near Velachery. A CCTV grab from a store helped cops identify him and he was arrested from his hideout in Guindy. He was involved in several robberies in the neighbourhood, police said.
“He used to approach lone women in the pretext of seeking an address or asking for water and used to rob them”, a police officer said. A graduate in Mathematics, he is also believed to have indulged in criminal activities in Krishnagiri too. He was working in Bengaluru for a few months before he came to the City searching for employment two years ago. Further investigations are on.
