Police identify two more victims from serial rapist’s phone

CASE UNRAVELLED WHEN COPS, WHO RAIDED ACCUSED’S SHOP AS PART OF A CRACKDOWN ON THE SALE OF CHEWING TOBACCO, SEIZED HIS PHONES FOR THE DETAILS OF HIS SUPPLIER

CHENNAI: Police have identified two more victims of an alleged serial rapist of minors in Chennai, officials said Tuesday, a day after five other girls were rescued.

The two girls, aged 15 and 17, were identified after an analysis of the phone of the accused, A Perumal, deputy commissioner R Karthikeyan said.

“We have identified two more children but we are yet to find their location,” he said. “We suspect that there are more victims. We need to interrogate him more to proceed further.”

The case unravelled on Saturday when the police, who raided Perumal’s shop as part of a crackdown on the sale of chewing tobacco (gutka), seized his phones for the details of his supplier. The case, however, took a horrific turn when they discovered videos clips of the alleged assaults of the minors girls and other pornographic videos he had downloaded from the internet.

Perumal was arrested under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, and Section 378 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, and the Information Technology Act and sent to judicial custody at the Chengalpet sub jail on Sunday.

An investigation officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the police are now planning to seek Perumal’s custody for further interrogations. “We are also planning to freeze his bank account,” the officer said.

The five girls, aged 4, 9, 11, 13 and 15, rescued on Monday, are now at a government-run home for children in the city. “They (the five girls) are doing fine for now,” chairperson of Chennai’s child welfare committee, Tamilselvi, said. According to officials, mothers of two of the girls connived with the accused and were paid between ₹1,000 and ₹2,000 each time.

The two women, who have also been arrested and are lodged at the Puzhal prison in the city, are seen in the videos on Perumal’s phone engaging in sexual acts with him. “The two women had an affair with him (accused) and later when he demanded their daughters, they brought them without any hesitation... in exchange for money,” the deputy commissioner said.

A forensic team is analysing the phones of the accused to check if he shared the videos of the children he had filmed, officials said.

Police are yet to ascertain how long Perumal has been carrying on with his crimes