Accused in sexual harassment case found dead in well

COIMBATORE: The owner of a working women’s hostel in Coimbatore, who was an accused in a sexual harassment case, was found dead in a well at Sivalarkulam near Alankulam in

Tirunelveli

district on Wednesday night. Police said the cause of death could be ascertained only after postmortem.


A Jagannathan, 46, of

VIP

Nagar at

Vilankurichi

in Coimbatore, was running two working women’s hostels – at Balaranganathapuram near

Peelamedu

and on Thanneerpandal Road. On July 23, parents of a few college girls who stayed in the hostel staged a protest in front of the hostel at Balaranganathapuram alleging that Jagannathan and warden Punitha had taken the girls to a hotel for dinner and asked them to drink liquor. But the girls refused to drink. Later, he allegedly made a WhatsApp video call to the warden and asked her to hand over the mobile phone to the girls. He allegedly told the girls that he would book rooms in the hotel if they agreed to take rest.

The girls returned to the hostel and informed their parents. Later, the Peelamedu police received a complaint and registered a case against Jagannathan and Punitha. The duo went absconding, and police formed three special teams to nab them.

Polie said Jagannathan had been staying in Courtallam to evade arrest. He wanted to surrender before the Alankulam judicial magistrate court on Wednesday, but could not do so. At night he went to a garden at Sivalarkulam where he consumed liquor with his friends. He told them that he had not harassed any girl and that he had been framed by his business rivals.

Later, he went missing from the place and his friends began searching for him. They found him dead inside a 70-foot-deep well. On being informed by local residents, the Alankulam police recovered the body and sent it to the Government Medical College and Hospital, Tirunelveli, for postmortem. They have registered a case. Investigations are on.

Meanwhile, the Coimbatore city police have sent special teams to Bengaluru and Chennai to trace Punitha.