A 20-year-old man from Chennai was arrested on Tuesday, May 24, for stalking and raping a woman at knifepoint. The crime took place on May 20, according to the police. The police said that the accused, identified as S Vishal, a resident of Palaniammam Koil 6th street Triplicane, had stalked the 43-year-old woman for three days, upon finding out that she lived alone in Adyar.
The man first saw the woman at the Triplicane MRTS station one week ago when she was returning home from her work, the police said. He then continued to follow her for three days when she took the train to Velachery. On Saturday, he followed her all the way to her house. When he found that the ground floor apartment in the complex was locked, the man rang the doorbell of the woman’s apartment on the first floor. When she opened the door, he lied stating that he was looking for houses in the area and asked her for some water. As per reports, when the woman turned to get water, he held her at knifepoint and sexually assaulted her.
The survivor lodged a complaint with the Adyar All Women’s Police Station on Sunday, May 22, which is when the incident came to light. As per the complaint, the accused had also taken compromising pictures of her and had threatened to leak the pictures on the internet if she failed to oblige to his demands to meet her. He had also sent a missed call to his phone number from her number, and saved it, following which he rang her up and threatened her.
Speaking to TNM, officers at the Adyar All Woman Police Station said that they used the man’s phone number to trace him and identified his address and name. The accused has been booked under multiple counts of the Indian Penal and the IT Act, including rape and stalking. The accused man has been remanded to judicial custody.