Soon after the nation went to sleep elated over India’s women’s cricket team’s victory in the ICC World Cup on November 2, a horrifying story emerged in Coimbatore that others were unaware of.
As the world found out the next day, A 20-year-old college student was gang-raped by three men In an isolated area near the compound wall of Government Polytechnic College (GPT). The incident came to light when the woman’s boyfriend, who was earlier attacked by the assailants with a sickle, called the police to report it. investigators searched huge vacant lot on the western and southern fringes of Brindavan Nagar, a quiet residential area near the airport and the main Avinashi Road, while the criminals fled through the exit of the adjacent Avinashi Road. According to investigators, three people allegedly Woman forced to climb over compound wall Brindavan Nagar was isolated from the scene at around 4 am on November 3.
Deeply shocked, the woman immediately took shelter in the street where she had landed after climbing the wall. She rang the bell of a nearby house, but when it did not work, she climbed the wall of the small compound in frustration. A person who helped the victim said The Hindu He knocked on the door to attract attention and also started the electric motor.
However, the residents were sleeping. Receiving no response, she climbed the stairs to the roof and managed to climb onto the verandah of a first-floor apartment in the adjacent building.
The woman kept knocking on the door of the first floor apartment, causing residents to open the window and find her crying for help in a state of panic. As the family struggled to understand what had happened, they called their neighbours, who rushed to the spot. Meanwhile, the distressed woman went down to the ground floor and kept knocking on the door.
A resident of a ground-floor house, who requested anonymity, said he did not hear the knocking because he had stayed up late to watch the World Cup final, including the post-match ceremony.
“My wife was away and hence, the lady on the first floor contacted her and informed about the matter. Although the neighbors and my wife called me several times, I was in deep sleep. I woke up after about 10 minutes and walked towards the door. The lights were on on the verandah and I was wondering who was outside. I saw a lady from the window and asked why she was standing on the verandah,” he said.
The woman panicked and said she was running away from three men who attacked her boyfriend at a nearby vacant plot, about 50-70 meters away from the kutcha road connecting Brindavan Nagar and SIHS Colony. Meanwhile the neighbors also came.
The witness said, “I told him: ‘You’re safe here. No one will hurt you.’ “She wanted to talk to her mother on the phone and I gave her my phone. We gave her some water and clothes to replace her torn clothes,” he said. Two people from the neighborhood reached a vacant plot adjacent to Brindavan Nagar, where they found police personnel searching for the kidnapped woman. After learning about the woman’s location, the police reached the house around 4.20 am and took her to a nearby private hospital.
heinous crime
Police officers involved in the initial phase of the investigation described the circumstances when they rescued the woman: She and her 25-year-old boyfriend arrived at a vacant lot in their car between 10.50 and 11 pm on 2 November.
According to the police, three people on a moped came near the car, while the occupants were talking inside. They were drunk and had an extra bottle of liquor. One of them broke the car window with a stone, while the other broke the front windscreen with a sickle. As soon as the woman’s boyfriend came out of the car, the attacker tried to attack him with a sickle. He picked up the weapon in self-defense, resulting in injuries to his hand. The attacker hit him again on the head and the second attacker hit him with a stone, rendering him unconscious.
Police said the trio, later identified as T. Karuppasamy alias Sathish, 30, of Singampunari in Sivagangai district, his brother T. Kaliswaran alias Karthik (21) and relative M. Guna alias Thavasi, 20, of Madurai district, forcibly raped the woman in the GPT after scaling the 6-7 feet compound wall that separates the vacant plots and the compound. Took to a secluded area behind the complex.
After regaining consciousness, the victim’s boyfriend informed the control room at around 11.20 pm and the police reached the spot within 10 minutes, resulting in a search operation involving 100 personnel in search of the kidnapped woman and the criminals. They naturally assumed that the survivor was in the trio’s custody while they searched the area.
Coimbatore City Police Commissioner A. Saravana Sundar said that due to darkness and dense bushes at the crime scene, the police could not locate the criminals and the survivors.
A senior police officer said a tracker dog from the K9 squad of the city police was brought to the spot to assist in the search. However, after smelling the woman’s belongings in the car, the dog ran away in the other direction.
A large number of police personnel also searched both directions of the adjacent twin rail line, suspecting that the kidnappers may have chosen the tracks as they are not extensively covered by surveillance cameras.
“When the officials came to our residential area, I joined the police team searching on the track,” said a student of Coimbatore Institute of Technology, whose campus shares vacant plots and boundary with the GPT campus.
search for criminals
Seven police teams were formed to nab the criminals and they examined footage from around 300 surveillance cameras. Some clips showing the accused fleeing on foot after the crime proved to be a major breakthrough, helping to solve the case. The moped left by the criminals near the kidnapping site was another important piece of evidence that helped trace the trio.
Kovilpalayam police in Coimbatore rural were looking for Kaleeswaran – who was identified during the gang rape investigation – in connection with the theft of a moped a few days before the crime. The investigators also found that the trio, who lived in Irugur, about 4 km from the crime scene, were absconding since the night of November 2.
The place at Vellakinar near Thudiyalur, from where the police arrested three accused. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Mr Sundar said the accused were identified on the basis of digital evidence including surveillance camera footage and were later traced to an isolated place in Vellakinar, about 15 km from the crime scene, around 10.45 pm on November 3. When he attacked a head constable with a weapon, the police arrested him after shooting him in the legs. The victim’s mobile phone and her gold ring were recovered from the accused. after arrest,
Siblings and History Sheeters
While siblings Karuppasamy and Kaliswaran had been living in Coimbatore for about 10 years, doing odd jobs for a living, Guna had started living with them only a few months ago.
Mr Sundar said brother and sister were history sheetersOn which a case of murder for profit was registered in Kinathukadavu, Coimbatore Rural in 2021. Kaliswaran was a minor at that time. Karuppasamy was booked by the Thirumuruganpoondi police in Tiruppur in 2023 for robbing a woman of her five gold chains.
According to police records, before their arrest in connection with the gang rape, Karuppasamy was involved in four criminal cases and Kaliswaran in seven criminal cases. In some cases they were released on statutory bail after spending time in judicial custody.
Based on the initial complaint lodged by the victim’s boyfriend, the three accused were arrested for offenses under sections 296B, 118(1), 324(4), 140(3), and 309(4) of the Indian Code of Justice (BNS). Later, based on the statement of the victim, the police added Section 70 (gang rape) of BNS against them. The survivor, who is receiving counselling, and her boyfriend remain in hospital.
Karuppasamy and Guna were shot in both legs, while Kaliswaran was shot in one leg. While in judicial custody, he is undergoing treatment at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital. Mr Sundar said a trial identification parade would be conducted after the accused recovered from their injuries.
A police officer associated with the investigation said there was a need to interrogate the accused in detail, using digital evidence such as mobile tower location data, to verify whether they were frequent visitors to the crime scene for similar crimes.
The investigation team is being led by a woman inspector. There is a race against time to complete the investigation. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, who condemned the crime As an “inhuman” and “brutal crime”, on November 4 the police were directed to file a charge sheet within a month and ensure that the accused receive the highest punishment.
political reaction
The gang rape incident also sparked widespread anger against the ruling DMK. Along with condemning the incident, opposition parties have also attacked the government, expressing concern over the safety of women in the state.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami said that DMK government was Compromise on women’s safety“Does any police force exist in Tamil Nadu?” she asked in a post on X after the gang rape. In another post he asked why the police could not find the woman for four hours and 25 minutes.
BJP Tamil Nadu President Nainar Nagenthran And Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan attacked the Chief Minister for his governance, which has “pushed Coimbatore far away from the status of being the safest place for women.”
Questioning the government on women’s safety, Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay said the gang rape in Coimbatore happened when the trauma of the Anna University student was still fresh. He was referring to the sexual harassment of a university student in Chennai in December 2024.
Following the serious crime, the city police has intensified night patrolling in all deserted and vacant areas within the limits of its 20 stations.
