Accused Nithyanathan

CHENNAI: A stalker slashed the throat of a Class VIII student who resisted his advances at Aminjikarai on Wednesday afternoon. Neighbours rushed the 13-year-old girl to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital where her condition is stable. Police are searching for the 26-year-old stalker who fled the scene.

Police said the man, Nithyanathan, and the girl lived in the same building where he ran an eatery on the ground floor. The girl and her parents have been living on the first floor for the past six years. Nithyanathan had been stalking the girl for months now despite being warned on several occasions.

Around 12.30pm on Wednesday, when the girl returned home after writing her exams at a government school in Shenoy Nagar, the man intercepted her and pressed his suit again. She ignored him and went to her house, but he followed her.

Neighbours heard the girl crying for help and rushed to her side. By then, a police officer said, the man had slashed her throat after sexually abusing her; there was no one else in the house at the time. In the melee, Nithyanathan managed to escape.

Police said Nithyanathan had been stalking the minor for the past several months, though she kept ignoring him. Some three months ago he proposed to her and she turned him down.

The girl told her parents what had happened and they warned the man off. They also told his father, Rajendran, that Nithyanathan was troubling their daughter. Police said his parents too had reprimanded the man for his behaviour.

Police said Nithyanathan persisted with his advances and on Wednesday assaulted the girl taking advantage of the fact that she was alone at home.

Police have launched a hunt for Nithyanathan who has switched off his mobile phone. The Anna Nagar all-women police have registered cases of attempt to murder and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act against Nithyanathan.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

