1 week Ago By Rajiv Kalkod
1 2 Bengaluru: A 26-year-old man who allegedly molested a girl while she was returning to her PG with her friend in southeast Bengaluru at night recently was arrested in Kerala on Sunday. The incident at Suddaguntepalya past April 2 midnight sparked outrage after a video showing the molester in the act had gone viral, prompting police to register an FIR on April 6 and launch a manhunt. The suspect has been identified as Santosh Daniel, a resident of Gulbarga Colony in Tilak Nagar.
He worked as a test driver for a showroom of imported cars at Brookefield and lives with his mother and his younger brother, who is an auto driver in Bengaluru. The family is from Thally in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu. Confirming the arrest, DCP (South-East) Sarah Fathima said the suspect was apprehended from his relative's house at Naduvilangadi village, Kerala.
"The accused will be brought to the city and we will produce him before the court Monday and seek his police custody," Fathima said. "Four special teams were working to trace him. We scanned recordings from 600 CCTV cameras in a week and visited lodges in Hosur, Salem, and Kozhikode.
The accused did not use his mobile, withdraw money from ATMs, or make online transactions. He fled the city on April 9," the DCP said. According to investigating police, Santosh first went to Hosur by bus in the morning.
"As the news of the molestation went viral and police announced their hunt for him, Santosh became alert. First, he went to Hosur. After spending a night there, he travelled to Salem.
He went to Kozhikode and proceeded to Naduvilangadi," another officer said. It can be recalled that as the girls were walking back to their PG accommodation at Bharati Layout after having green tea, Santosh allegedly accosted them at 1:52am on April 3. A CCTV camera installed outside a building revealed the act, where Santosh (then unidentified) rushed towards the girls and pushed one of them to a wall before molesting her.
He ran away quickly. Police managed to trace the girls on April 7, but the one who was attacked took objection to the video being hosted on social media. She also declined to lodge a complaint.
However, police had by then registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by a businessman, who had uploaded the video on a social media platform. "Initially, it took us some time to identify him. Finally, after checking on over 150 CCTV cameras, we identified the licence plate of his gearless scooter.
With the help of the address given to RTO, we reached his house at Gulbarga Colony in Tilak Nagar. By then he had left the city. As his mobile was switched off, we started scanning CCTV recordings from his residence and, working on them and other technical matters, we travelled to Hosur, Salem, Kozhikode, and finally traced him to Naduvilangadi on Sunday morning," another police officer said.
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