Student dons burqa for a kiss, gets beaten up by locals

Accepting a challenge from his girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, Sakthivel, donned a burqa, walked to Marina from Royapettah and got thrashed by the public. And all this, just so he could receive a kiss from his girl in return for his theatrics. 

The first-year ITI student was mistaken for a thief and beaten up by the local residents at Royapettah before being handed over to the police. Once police began investigation, the entire Valentine’s Day drama unfolded. Sakthivel is from Thandurai near Pattabiram.

A tea shop owner on Besant Road on Tuesday noticed a person in a burqa and began to doubt that something was fishy, especially after he noticed the person wearing men’s footwear and a sunglass. Suspecting him to be a miscreant of sorts, the tea shop owner raised an alarm and passers-by in the locality secured the person. The onlookers were surprised to see a youth under the burqa.

They beat him up and handed him over to Ice House police station. After inquiries,  Inspector Krishnamoorthy unravelled the man’s identity and found that he was no thief. Sakthivel confessed to the police that he wore a burqa as part of a challenge for which his girlfriend promised him a kiss.

Police said that he met the girl from Royapettah at a job fair and a relationship developed between them. “On February 14, Sakthivel wanted to kiss his girlfriend for which she asked him to wear a burqa and walk to Marina beach from Royapettah. The girl lent him the burqa. But he was secured by residents on suspicion,” an officer said.

The police informed Sakthivel’s parents about the incident and let him go with a warning.

The incident is reminiscent of an instance from Shankar’s 2003 movie Boys, where the female protagonist asks the male lead to cross a busy road in the buff, only then would she accept his proposal. The lead actor, played by Siddharth, gets arrested for public nuisance in the film.