An 18-year-old youth who was accused of attempting to rape a 41-year-old woman, injuring her seriously, at Vamanapuram in the Venjaramoodu police station limits on Monday, was arrested early Tuesday.
S. Vijayan, Circle Inspector, Venjaramoodu, said the accused, Anwar, was produced before court and remanded in judicial custody.
He said Anwar was arrested from a relative’s house at Perumathura around 1 a.m. Three teams supervised by R. Prathapan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Attingal, had fanned out in search of Anwar after he went into hiding immediately after the incident around 7 a.m. on Monday. With Anwar switching off his mobile phone, efforts to trace him with the help of mobile signals met a dead end.
The relative’s house at Perumathura was where Anwar took refuge whenever he was not on good terms with his parents. A police team that reached the house late in the night found him there, and took him into custody around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
‘Grouse’Mr. Vijayan said the police had learnt that Anwar had approached the woman about three months ago, asking for sexual favours after he took a fancy to her, but was scolded. The woman, in fact, reported the incident to his parents. This, along with her complaint to his parents later that he was part of a group of youth who allegedly harassed her near her house, made him look out for an opportunity to attack her, he said.
The police were verifying whether one of Anwar’s friends was with him at the time of the incident, Mr. Vijayan said.
Anwar, he said, was known to have run into trouble on several occasions earlier, though he was never booked for any criminal offence.
The police learnt that he was sent out of at least two schools after he got into trouble with other students there, and lost a couple of academic years consequently. He was waiting for his results after appearing for the Plus One examinations at a private tutorial near Venjaramoodu.
The woman, meanwhile, is slowly recovering at Government Medical College Hospital from her injuries, including one on her head that required stitches after Anwar allegedly struck her with a stone.
