A 37-year-old Gnanasekaran was arrested for allegedly raping a second-year engineering college student from Anna University and filming her as a means of blackmailing her with the male friend. This incident brings the focus back on safety on campuses. The authorities are set to review safety measures while political rivals criticize the DMK government about security on college campuses not having been established properly.
It was alleged that a 37-year-old man with a criminal record raped a second-year engineering student of Anna University in Chennai on campus after filming her and her male friend and attempting to blackmail them with the footage.
Suspect Gnanasekaran, who operates a roadside polity near the campus, was arrested on Wednesday, a day after the survivor called a police helpline to report the assault on her the night before.
Amidst uproar against the alleged rape and safety and security on the campus, the police issued a statement that varsity authorities and senior police officials will take this opportunity to jointly scrutinize the possible security loopholes and plug these.
Political Aspect:
Opposition members, including AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswamy, BJP state chief K Annamalai, PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran, slammed the Stalin-led regime for purportedly compromising security on educational campuses.
State minister for higher education, Govind Chezhiyan, said setbacks would be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur. In this, they also shouldn’t forget the Pollachi sexual assault cases of 2019 when AIADMK was in power that people might be trying to politicize.
The investigators stated that the survivor, along with her friend, was behind an old building in a desolate portion of the campus, close to Raj Bhavan and IIT Madras.
What Happened?
At around 8 pm on December 23, Gnanasekaran sprang a surprise on the couple, claiming that he had codified the couples’ alleged intimate moments. The male friend, a third-year student of the institute, was then threatened before being sent away, and Gnanasekaran proceeded to rape the woman.
Before running away, Gnanasekaran asked her for her phone number so that she could meet him any other time he called her. He had committed a sexual assault case back in 2011 against a woman for which he was arrested; it is for sure that he had not appeared in any trial yet. As the police said, there were still around 15 additional cases of theft and robbery in his name.
The investigators collected samples from the scene of crime and were looking for the phones used by Gnanasekaran. They suspect that he might have captured pictures of several women in that.
