A day after a Chennai college student alleged that she was sexually harassed by an Uber auto driver on the night of Sunday, September 25, the Chennai police have arrested the man. The student had narrated the incident, and her experience with the police officials while trying to register a First Information Report (FIR), in a series of tweets in the early hours of Monday, September 26. The student had alleged that the auto driver had sexually harassed her while dropping her and her friend at the Ibis Chennai OMR hotel on Sunday night. She also alleged that she had to face several hurdles to register an FIR with the Chennai police.
According to the student’s recollection of the events, she and her friend took an Uber auto to the Ibis OMR Hotel on Sunday night. As her friend was making the payment and she was stepping out of the vehicle, the student alleged that the auto driver sexually harassed her. Even as the student raised an alarm and tried to stop him along with her friend, the driver managed to escape, she said. She then alleged that the police did not respond to her calls at first. Thirty minutes later, she said a police inspector arrived at the hotel to investigate, and asked her to wait till Monday morning to register an FIR as there was no female officer at the police station.
The inspector also allegedly refused to let them go to the police station to register the FIR, the student said. She added that when she, her friend and two hotel employees went to the Semmencherry police station, the station in-charge denied them entry saying women were not allowed inside the station during the night. The student said that she then filed the complaint outside the police station, after being given a plain sheet of paper. She further said that she was not given the contact of the female police officer whom she was asked to visit on Monday morning.
The accused auto driver, Selvam, has since been arrested and sent to remand, and the student said the Tambaram police have seized his auto and CCTV footage related to the incident. Semmencherry police told TNM on Tuesday that an FIR was registered under Section 354A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 (penalty for harassment of woman) of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act.