Six men who threatened and chased a car full of women passengers on Chennai‘s East Coast Road earlier this week were arrested on January 31. Karthikeyan, Deputy Commissioner of Police for Pallikaranai, told the media that a total of seven men were involved in the incident and two vehicles have been seized from the arrested men.
So far, the identity of only one of the accused is known publicly. Reports say that Chandru, a student, has been charged as the main accused.
On January 29, video footage of the incident began going viral. The footage—shot by one of the women inside the car—shows a white SUV bearing a DMK flag blocking their path horizontally, across the road. Then, a man gets out of the SUV and runs towards the women's car with threatening gestures. When they attempted to drive away, the SUV moved to block their path further.
According to reports, the SUV chased the women all the way to their destination. The entire incident occurred after dark. In the video, the women can also be heard screaming in terror, urging others in their car to lock the doors and asking the woman on the driver's seat to try and drive away.
The footage led to widespread outrage, after which six police teams were formed to track down the men. In the press meet, Karthikeyan said that the incident occurred when the victims were leaving the popular boating facility in Mutakkadu, not far from Chennai.
Referring to the DMK flag on the accused’s SUV, Karthikeyan claimed that the SUV owner had used it to avail benefits like avoiding paying toll fees at toll gates. He added that there appeared to be no affiliation between the accused and any political party.