Members of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) stage a protest against the alleged sexual harassment of a girl student of Anna University that happened outside the university, in Chennai, Wednesday, Dec,25. 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: Chilling details of the sexual assault of an Anna University student emerged on Thursday with the FIR detailing the harrowing 40 minutes that the survivor faced at the hands of the offender, who is a street vendor selling biryani close to the university campus.
The incident also triggered a massive political showdown between Opposition parties, AIADMK and BJP, and the ruling DMK whose dispensation came under attack for arresting people who gathered to protest against the sexual assault of the student.
Chennai City Police Commissioner A Arun said 20 cases were filed against the accused and he has been convicted in six of them. “All the past cases relate to petty crimes and no sexual assault case was filed against him earlier,” he added.
The second-year engineering student at the Tamil Nadu’s premier engineering institute alleged that she was held hostage by the offender for about 45 minutes on December 23 evening. The girl wrote in her complaint that the offender emerged from nowhere at around 7.45 pm when she and her male friend were talking in the campus and threatened to “leak” a video of them, besides sending it to the girl’s father.
“He then took my friend away while asking me to wait at the same place. Returning within a few minutes, he showed a video of me and my friend and threatened to show it to college authorities and ensured that she is expelled from the college. He then gave me three options to choose from,” the FIR, accessed by DH, said quoting the girl.
“When I remained silent, he got agitated and began violating me. He also snatched my mobile phone from me to get my father’s number which he saved in his phone,” the FIR said, adding that the offender was clad in a black shirt and grey jeans and was wearing a black cap.
Police, who came under criticism for uploading the FIR online, are investigating whether a second person was involved in the sexual assault as the girl alleged that the offender received a call from “someone” while she was being held hostage.
The girl, who is currently receiving counselling, has also spoken to the investigating officers and members of the University Internal Complaints Committee (ICC-POSH).
As Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai released pictures of the offender posing with deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and Health Minister Ma Subramanian alleging a “nexus”, Law Minister S Regupathy rejected reports of the accused’s links with the ruling picture.
“Anyone can click a picture with government functionaries. Politicians do oblige for pictures with people who approach them in events. A picture alone cannot be used to make wild allegations,” Regupathy added.
Hundreds of cadres and leaders of the AIADMK and BJP, including former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, were detained by the police outside the Anna University campus for protesting against the incident.
The AIADMK, which has been faulting the DMK dispensation over the law-and-order situation, has announced that demonstrations will be held outside all district collectorates on Friday in protest against rising crime.