CHENNAI: A 37-year-old man with a criminal record allegedly raped a second-year engineering student at Chennai’s Anna University on campus after filming her with a male companion and attempting to blackmail them using the clip.
Suspect Gnanasekaran, who owns a roadside cafe near campus, was detained Wednesday, a day after the survivor called a police helpline to report the assault the previous evening.
Amid outrage over the alleged rape and lack of safety on campus, police issued a statement stating that varsity officials and senior officers would work together to identify and solve potential security gaps.
Opposition leaders, including AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, BJP state chairman K Annamalai, PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, and AMMK chief TTV Dhinakaran, blasted the MK Stalin-led DMK government for allegedly increasing security on educational campuses.
Govi Chezhian, the state’s higher education minister, said measures would be taken to prevent such crimes from occurring in the future. He said anyone attempting to politicize the issue should remember the 2019 Pollachi sexual assault cases, which occurred while the AIADMK was in office.
Investigators stated the survivor was with a companion behind an old structure in a remote area of campus near Raj Bhavan and IIT Madras when the incident occurred around 8 p.m. on December 23.
According to the lawsuit, Gnanasekaran approached the couple and said that he had videotaped their purported personal moments. He allegedly intimidated his male friend, a third-year institute student, into leaving before raping the woman.
Before escaping, Gnanasekaran sought the survivor’s phone number and instructed her to meet him whenever he called. He was arrested in 2011 for allegedly sexually abusing a lady on campus. It was not immediately clear whether the case proceeded to trial. According to police, he is still facing approximately 15 theft and robbery charges.
Investigators have collected samples from the crime scene and are looking for Gnanasekaran’s cell phone, which they believe may have contained images of multiple women.
