2 held for raping B'lore IT staffer

Police on Tuesday, arrested Lakhinath, 20, and Presonagam, 22, contract workers from Assam, on the charge of raping an IT professional from Bangalore last week at a backwater resort in Pozhiyoor near here.

The two were employed at the resort as cleaning department staff. The 40-year-old woman was raped in the early hours of November 28 at Pozhiyoor, about 30 km from here, while staying at the resort on an official visit. According to the police, Lakhinath raped the woman after the duo overpowered her in the dark.

Fingernail marks on the two men’s bodies and wooden beads from Lakhinath’s broken bracelet found in the woman’s cottage were among clues that led to detention of the duo.

A J Thomas Kutty, Thiruvananthapuram Rural District SP, said the two men had gained entry into the single-occupancy cottage through a rear door. “The two men had taken the room keys from the resort’s housekeeping section and while the woman was out for dinner, entered the room and unscrewed the rear door’s bolts. After she retired to the cottage, they came back and entered the cottage through the rear door,” Thomas Kutty told Deccan Herald.

The two men will be produced at a local court on Wednesday. Police said the complainant had to identify the accused. Sources said the resort management had employed the two men through a contracting firm based in Kottayam.