Three Chennai Women Raped At Knife-point In Two Days

Crime against women is an epidemic that we are dealing with across the country. Recently in Chennai, three women have alleged that they were raped at knife-point. Two of these incidents happened on the same street on May 20 and May 21. These incidents have sent the locals into a tizzy.

One of the survivors, 28-year-old Vanitha (name changed), told TNIE, “On Sunday, around 12.30 am, I went to the bathroom outside the house leaving behind my one-year-old daughter to sleep inside the house.

“The room was dimly lit, I came back and went back to sleep by her side. A few minutes later, a man clad in shorts and T-shirt with curly hair tried to choke me and kept a knife at my daughter’s neck and threatened to kill her if I screamed.”

Two of the rapes occurred in the same locality. In both cases, the accused sneaked in when the women went outside to use the toilet

Vanitha had just shifted to a new locality along with her two children—daughter and four-year-old son. Her in-laws had insisted that she shift near them, so she rented out a new place only the day before. She told the media that she feared the man would kill her daughter, so she did not make noise. However, she could see that the man was actually her neighbour who she had met in the evening while shifting.

“He mentioned spotting me in the street before and took down my phone number before he left. He also said he will not come back again and left the house around 3.30 am,” she added.

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A neighbour said, “She was crying and her sister had come to visit her. We knew there was a problem but assumed it to be a family dispute and never interfered.”

Neighbours thrashed accused

The next day, Vanitha narrated the whole incident to her father-in-law after which the family along with neighbours nabbed the man and thrashed him before handing him over to the police.

The mother-in-law said, “The suspect had asked me on Saturday if my daughter-in-law had moved to the house, I replied in the negative and continued with my work. But, I did not expect this. On Sunday, he was speaking over the phone late night keeping a track of my daughter-in-law’s activities,” said the mother-in-law.

The accused lives in the same compound as Vanitha. Another neighbour said, “He lived with his parents, sister and grandmother. On Monday, the suspect’s grandmother was knocking the door as it was latched from outside. I found it unusual, then I thought some children must have locked it. Only now it is clear that the suspect locked his own door from outside.”

This incident was followed by another similar incident in the same locality with a 27-year-old woman named Rani. She lived alone in the locality. Earlier her sister also used to live with her but she married and moved in with her husband.

“On Monday, Rani, had finished work and reached home by 11 pm. Around 2 am, she stepped out of the house to use the bathroom when the suspect sneaked inside the house and was hiding. After she fell asleep, the man forced himself on her. When she tried to raise an alarm, he threatened her at knife-point and raped her. After he left, the woman alerted her neighbours and informed her parents,” police said.

Rani’s (name changed) house is barely 10 metres away from Vanitha’s. “In both cases, the women had to use the bathroom which was outside the house. This made it easy for the suspect to gain entry inside the house,” said a police source.

The police have sent both the survivors for medical check-up and collected the CCTV footage of the street.

Drunk man rapes relative

Police also said that the same night a drunk man had raped a 25-year-old mother of two, who was a relative, in another locality.

“Vaishali (name changed), was married five years ago and had two children. Her husband worked as a security guard and their relative resided in the same apartment complex in a different house,” said a police officer.

The police arrested the man, identified as Vinoth. He is in judicial custody.

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