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Woman sexually assaulted inside auto in TN: Police
Police said that the incident took place when the woman was waiting for a bus outside the Kilambakkam bus terminus in Tambaram near Chennai
An 18-year-old woman, who was waiting at a bus stand, was allegedly forcibly dragged into an auto by the driver and was later sexually assaulted by three men, including the driver, in the moving vehicle late on Monday night on the outskirts of Chennai, police officers aware of the matter said, adding that they have tracked down the three suspects after scanning CCTV footage.
“Two special teams have been formed to nab them,” a police officer of the Tambaram police station said on condition of anonymity.
Police said that the incident took place when the woman, who belongs to another state and works in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district, was waiting for a bus outside the Kilambakkam bus terminus in Tambaram near Chennai to visit a relative in Chennai. Meanwhile, the auto-rickshaw driver offered her a ride. After she refused, the driver forcibly dragged her into the auto. Later, two more men got into the vehicle and sexually assaulted her, they added.
Bystanders who heard her screaming from inside the auto alerted police. As a police patrol vehicle chased the auto, the suspects threw her off on the road and sped away. The police team rescued her, they said.
The opposition criticised the ruling DMK over the rising number of incidents of sexual crimes against women as the incident took place after the sexual assault of a student inside Chennai’s premier Anna Univeristy last December.
“An 18-year-old girl was abducted in an auto rickshaw outside the Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus in Kilambakkam and was sexually assaulted,” Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamlai said in a post on X. “She was saved by a good samaritan who dialled the police control room after hearing the girl’s cry for help. Sexual assault across TN has become a horrifying reality, with drugs becoming an easily accessible commodity,” he added.
He also said that the number of arrests made in NDPS cases in TN in the last three years, between 2022 and 2024, was only 1,122. In 2021 (in one year), the total number of arrests in NDPS cases was 9,632. “The sale of Ganja & Methamphetamine is on the rise in TN but the arrests are on the decline,” Annamalai said. “How? Has the TN Govt deliberately become complacent to give drug peddlers a free run?” he added.
