CHENNAI: The Chennai city police have arrested a man for allegedly kidnapping and raping an engineering college student who was chatting with her boyfriend on the Akkarai beach. The man committed the crime after posing as a policeman.

The accused, S Bharathiraja alias Arunmozhi, 29, is a married man and has an eight-month-old daughter. His wife and daughter stay in Karaikal.

CCTV footages recorded at a toll plaza and a police check post helped the police solve the case.

“Police teams searched for the man by showing the footages to the neighbours,” an investigation officer said. The police also gathered information about him using his bike registration number.

“We drew all the possible places and locality where the girl was kidnapped and sexually abused by the abductor. We almost cracked the case when we traced the place on Fifth Cross Street on Adikesavan Nagar in Sholinganallur. Inquiries revealed that the accused stayed at a house there,” a police officer said.

“When we visited Arunmozhi’s house, he was not there. Police teams were posted outside his house to nab him. He was caught when he reached home in the wee hours of Sunday,” the officer said.

During questioning, Arunmozhi confessed to have committed the crime. He told them that he had been tempted after seeing Nandita (name changed) and her boyfriend in a compromising position on the beach on Monday evening.

He confessed to the investigation officers that he had devised a plan to kidnap the girl. He intercepted them as a policeman and snatched their college identity cards. He wanted her to travel pillion on his bike and asked her boyfriend to meet them at the Semmancherry police station. He kept her quiet on the bike by blackmailing her that he would expose the matter to her parents.

Arunmozhi took her to his rented house and gagged her. He stripped and molested her. As she received continuous calls on her mobile, he panicked and dropped her on the East Coast Road ( ECR ) and escaped.

Arunmozhi, a PhD in pharmacy, worked as a drug safety associate at a software company near Sholinganallur. He is a native of Vettaikaran Street in Karaikal near Puducherry. He visited his wife Padmavathy and daughter Amirtha once in a week.

During investigation, Arunmozhi denied having been involved in similar kidnap and rape cases earlier.

The Neelankarai police registered a case under sections 363 (kidnap) and 376 (rape) of the IPC. He was remanded in judicial custody.

