In yet another grim event of gangrape that has come to light in Tamil Nadu in parallel with a gangrape incident that emerged earlier this week, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested four people for sexually harassing a woman in the Vellore district and the police have come to know about the crime not from the victim but from the assailants who had confessed about the gang rape during their quarrel. 

According to reports, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested four people including two minors in connection to gangraping a woman hospital worker in Vellore. The incident came to light when two of the accused had admitted it to the police. On March 19, the police officials had intervened in a quarrel between two of the accused. They were under the influence of alcohol and they were fighting outside an ATM in Sathuvachari, Vellore. 

The police have detained them and taken them to the police station for further inquiry. During the investigation, it was found that the two were altercated over dividing Rs 40,000, the money that they had robbed. The further probe with them had taken the police to a heinous crime - the gang rape. During the investigation, one of the accused had mentioned 'rape'. With an intense inquiry, the duo had admitted that they had raped a woman and robbed her and her male friend. 

It has been reported that the woman and her male friend were on their way to a private hospital, where they were working. The two had stopped an auto, that carried five persons. The auto driver had claimed it to be a share auto, the woman and her male friend boarded it to reach the hospital. They shared their destination with the driver. However, the auto had taken a wrong route and the driver had said that he had used detour to avoid the barricade. 

The auto had taken another wrong turn and the woman and her friend realized that something is not right and they told the driver to stop the vehicle. However, the auto went by and the duo was taken to a sequestered place and five men, who were in the auto, had gang-raped the woman. The perpetrators had also taken the woman's male friend to a nearby ATM and forced him to withdraw Rs 40,000. They had robbed the money and fled the spot. 

The gang had further heisted the mobile phones and gold jewellery of the victims. Two days later, two of the victims were fighting on dividing the share of Rs 40,000 during which they were intervened by the police. As the accused had confessed about the crime, the affected woman had lodged a complaint based on which the police have filed an FIR against the accused under sections 147 - punishment for rioting, 148 - rioting, armed with a deadly weapon, 342- wrongful confinement, 365 - kidnapping,  376 (D) - gang rape, 395 - dacoity, 397 - robbery with an attempt to cause death or hurt, 506 (ii) - punishment for criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code. 

The FIR also reads section 4 - penalty for harassment of woman of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act. According to reports, the incident of gang rape has happened during the wee hours of March 17.  On March 23, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has said in the assembly that four of the five accused had been arrested by the police. The arrested accused have been identified as Santhosh, Manikandan, and two minors. 

Incidentally, the gang rape in Vellore has come to light in parallel with gang rape in Virudhunagar, where a 22-year-old Dalit woman was sexually harassed by an eight-member gang for the past seven months. The issue was reported earlier this week and all the accused, including two DMK functionaries and three school students, were arrested. As per the order of the Chief Minister, the case has now been transferred to the CB-CID. This Dalit woman was filmed, blackmailed, and raped by the gang. In a dreadful similarity, both the cases of gang rape have involvement of minors.