18-Year-Old Migrant Sexually Assaulted In Moving Auto-Rickshaw Near Chennai

An 18-year-old migrant was sexually assaulted in a moving autorickshaw near Chennai late on Monday night. Police have said they are scanning CCTV footage near the crime scene and are close to tracking down three suspects.

The woman was waiting for a bus outside the Kilambakkam bus terminus near Chennai when an auto-rickshaw driver offered her a ride. When she refused, he dragged her inside. Soon after, two more men got into the three-wheeler and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint.

The woman was screaming as the auto-rickshaw sped through the roads. Hearing her cries, some passers-by alerted police and a team of cops started chasing the vehicle. The assailants managed to drop off the survivor on the roadside and sped away. A bystander she met, who also happened to be a cop, helped her and the police team rescued her. The girl, it is learnt, is from another state and works in Salem.

This incident was reported just a month after the sexual assault on the campus of Anna University that sparked a massive political row.

Hitting out at the MK Stalin-led DMK government, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai said sexual assault in the state had become a "horrifying reality".

"An 18-year-old girl was abducted in an auto rickshaw outside the Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus in Kilambakkam and was sexually assaulted. She was saved by a good samaritan who dialled the police control room after hearing the girl's cry for help," he said.

"Sexual assault across TN has become a horrifying reality, with drugs becoming an easily accessible commodity. However, the number of arrests made in NDPS cases in TN in the last three years, between 2022 and 2024, was only 1122. In 2021 (in one year), the total number of arrests in NDPS cases was 9632. The sale of Ganja & Methamphetamine is on the rise in TN but the arrests are on the decline. How? Has the TN Govt deliberately become complacent to give drug peddlers a free run?" Mr Annamalai said in a post on X.