23-year-old held for abetting suicide of Dalit woman

Relatives of the victim alleged that the accused tried to rape the married woman in her house on Thursday afternoon. He tried to stab her with a knife when she raised an alarm. Villagers who heard Deepa rushed to her house and saw the accused fleeing the place. Deepa and her husband Chinnadurai lodged a complaint with the police the same day, but the police took it lightly and only issued a Community Service Register certificate instead of lodging a FIR. On Friday, Rajiv Gandhi’s parents went to Deepa’s house and picked up a quarrel with her, hearing which villagers gathered there. Police went to the spot and dispersed the crowd. 

Upset over the humiliating events Deepa committed suicide by hanging on Friday. Her body was sent to the Attur Government Hospital for post-mortem. Police registered the case as death under suspicious circumstances and started investigating. The victim’s family staged a protest at the hospital premises that night demanding arrest of Rajiv Gandhi and action against police personnel who did not initiate action against him based on the victim’s complaint.

They alleged that Rajiv Gandhi was arrested on a sexual abuse case by the police and came out on bail only a week ago. Police said that they arrested Rajiv Gandhi on Friday night and remanded him.