Kochi tattooist, who was on the run, arrested

Contrary to speculations that he had fled the State, he was nabbed from near Kochi

Sujeesh P.S., the tattooist who had been on the run since serious allegations of sexual atrocities were levelled against him by several women over the last few days, was taken into custody on Saturday night.

The arrest is likely to be recorded shortly. Contrary to speculations that Sujeesh had fled the State, he was nabbed not far away from Kochi. “He was cornered and made to surrender almost. He was alone at the time when he was picked up,” said C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City).

The noose around the tattooist had tightened after the registration of two more cases on Saturday. This came close on the heels of four first information reports (FIR) registered against Sujeesh at two police stations on Friday. While four cases were registered at the Palarivattom station, the remaining two were registered at the Cheranalloor station.

The accused has closed down his swanky tattoo studio at Kunnumpuram within the Cheranalloor police station limits and had been on the run since Wednesday when a post by an 18-year-old girl about her alleged harrowing experience at the studio went viral. This opened a floodgate, as more young women came up with similar allegations, some of which date back three years.

The Cheranalloor police raided and sealed the studio at Kunnumpuram. They also seized the digital video recorder of the security camera system with the help of the cyber cell.

The tattooist had initially run a much smaller studio from a rented room at Alinchuvadu. Despite moving to a bigger space, he continued to maintain the room.

Initially, the police had a tough time registering cases in the absence of complainants. Even the 18-year-old who made the allegation first backed out from lodging a formal complaint. Though many more women had come out on social media calling out the accused, the police failed to receive even a single complaint, forcing them to restrict the probe to a preliminary inquiry (PE) on Thursday. The PE was converted into one of the two FIRs at the Cheranalloor police station.