Gym owner arrested after ex-girlfriend alleges abuse
CHENNAI: A day after a young woman’s post on social media describing how she was in an abusive relationship with a gym owner went viral, the Poonamallee all-woman police arrested the latter for woman harassment.
The accused, R Manikandan (29) of Kattupakkam, who runs a gym called Toneez Fitness Centre, has reportedly won Mr World fitness title twice and Mr Tamil Nadu four times. An iPhone was seized from him, said the police.
The victim, a 31-year-old woman from Palavakkam, had allegedly met Manikandan through social media in 2019. They developed a relationship a year later and were living together. Manikandan allegedly recorded their private moments against her will, which soured the relationship. Later, she found out that there were intimate videos of him with other women on his phone. But when she confronted him, he allegedly threatened her and physically abused her whenever she questioned him about the videos. The woman said he even threatened to kill her if she went to the media about their abusive relationship.
After keeping quiet for a while, the woman finally gathered the courage to put up a post on Instagram exposing Manikandan on Saturday, which quickly went viral. “It was a perfect relationship between us – until one day I felt his hand on my face. He said, ‘B**ch, if you had your mouth close, it wouldn’t have happened’,” she recalled in the post. She also alleged that he even tried to strangle her once.
Based on the complaint she lodged online, Poonamallee all-woman police registered a case and arrested Manikandan. He was remanded in judicial custody.