7 college students arrested for gang-rape of 17-year-old girl in Coimbatore
Police said that one of the boys befriended the girl over social media and invited her to his rented home, where he and his six friends gang-raped her
The Tamil Nadu police have arrested seven students of two colleges for gang-raping a 17-year-old girl in Coimbatore after acquainting with her through social media platforms, officials said on Tuesday.
Police said that one of the boys befriended the girl over social media and invited her to his rented home in Kuniyamuthur, where he and his six friends gang-raped her.
Police started the investigation after the girl’s grandmother filed a missing person report at the Ukkadam police station on Sunday. The girl returned on Monday morning. When questioned by the police, she disclosed her ordeal.
Police lodged a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. On Tuesday, all seven students were arrested from their residence in Kuniamuthur.
The accused are in the age group of 19 and 20, police said.
Coimbatore city police commissioner A Saravana Sundar said the accused were arrested, as the police acted promptly on the complaint filed by the grandmother.
“The girl was staying with her grandmother, and her parents and siblings were away,” he said.
While various women’s groups in Coimbatore called for strict action against the students involved and urgent justice for the victim, the incident has sparked widespread outrage across the state, which has seen several serious crimes targeting women reported over the past month.
BJP state president K. Annamalai came down heavily on the ruling DMK for the increasing crimes against women in the state. “The Nirbhaya case shook the entire country. However, in Tamil Nadu, women—including girls, students, female police officers, and female government officials—face daily threats to their safety. The DMK government has not taken any action to combat drug trafficking or to ensure the safety of women,” he said in a post on X.
In Chennai, members of the student wing of the opposition party AIADMK held a protest, demanding the DMK government to put an end to the sexual crimes committed against female students and women in Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathiyan said the demonstration aimed to awaken the DMK government from its “slumber” and demanded severe punishment for the perpetrators of these crimes.
“A senior police officer was suspended last week for allegedly sexually harassing a female police constable,” he said alleging that the educational institutions in Tamil Nadu were becoming a “centre of sexual exploitation of children.” He also recalled a recent incident in which a mathematics teacher allegedly sexually assaulted 43 school students.
In both Chennai and Coimbatore, AIADMK members, clad in black shirts and blindfolded, raised slogans denouncing the state government and demanding justice for the survivors.
The gangrape happened two days after four boys were accused of raping two minors and sodomising an 18-year-old boy in Pollachi on the outskirts of Coimbatore. Police had apprehended three of the adolescents and the youth, confiscating mobile phones that were suspected to have captured the events.