A police team has nabbed a man suspected to have sexually assaulted a 19-year-old city college girl in Sholinganallur on Monday evening, after she went to Akkarai beach with her college mate. The suspect is reportedly an employee of a top IT firm on Old Mahabalipuram Road.
Sources in the investigation team identified the man as Arun Mozhi Bharatiraja (33), a qualified pharmacist from a village near Thirunallar. He was nabbed near his native village early on Saturday, brought to Chennai and being interrogated at an undisclosed location.
ADVERTISEMENT
CCTV grabs from a lodge and an apartment complex close to the OMR exit toll plaza in Sholinganallur shows the suspect riding a motorbike with the victim en route to his one-room house.
“We zeroed in on the suspect after the victim’s male friend identified the man from a CCTV footage we obtained from the locations where he passed with the girl riding pillion. After establishing his workplace, we reached there to realise he had abruptly gone on leave from Tuesday,” said an investigating officer.
Arun fled the city immediately after media reports emerged of the sexual assault.
“He has been residing here for the last six months after his friend and roommate left about three months ago. He claimed he worked for a hospital in Perumbakkam and paid a monthly rent of Rs. 3,000. We didn’t know his identity and realised that the crime took place here only after policemen came to inspect the house on Friday evening,” added the landlord of the house.
ADVERTISEMENT