Man arrested for raping mentally ill woman at Marina Beach

Chennai: A 30-year-old man has been arrested for raping a 19-year-old woman with a mental health condition at Marina Beach. The arrested suspect endeared himself with the woman through a social media platform and lured her near a theatre in Egmore. He then took her to the the Marina Beach swimming pool and raped her, police said.The woman from West Mambalam, who suffers from a mild mental health condition, left her home on May 13. Her parents searched for her and brought her back home on May 18 after learning she was wandering around Mambalam Railway Station.On May 19, the woman fell ill. She was taken to Kasturba Gandhi Govt Hospital in Triplicane for a medical examination, during which it was revealed she had been sexually assaulted. Doctors immediately informed the Mambalam all women police station.Investigation revealed the woman had a habit of leaving her home and subsequently returning after a couple of days. She was active on Instagram and maintained contact with male acquaintances.On May 13, she left her home without informing anyone. While she was standing near the theatre in Egmore, a man named Imran, 30, a resident of Chintadripet, who was passing by on a two-wheeler and whom she knew through the social media platform, offered her a ride. Imran took the woman to Marina Beach, where the two spent private time together near the swimming pool.Imran dropped the woman off at Fort Railway Station early on May 14. She went to several places and even out of station with people she had befriended online, and returned to the Marina, where her father’s friend spotted her, and informed her family.Mambalam All Women Police registered a case. They arrested Imran, a resident of Chintadripet, and are interrogating him. He was produced before a magistrate court and remanded in judicial custody.