WHY THE ANNA UNIVERSITY SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE MUST BE A WAKE-UP CALL ON WOMEN SAFETY

What was the convict's modus operandi? How did the women helpline 181 respond? Were the police sensitive enough? Did the court accept the claim of alibi?

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The story so far: On December 23, 2024, 37-year-old D. Gnanasekar, who ran a roadside biriyani shop named Gravity Biriyani, entered the Anna University campus at Guindy in Chennai on his two-wheeler, and raped an engineering student. Cognisant of the topography of the varsity, he was even well aware of the coverage area of CCTV cameras and their blind spots on the campus. The shocking incident, which occurred right inside the university campus, the manner in which the survivor reacted to it, the response — or the lack of it — from the women's helpline number 181, the subsequent police action, and the 199-page judgment delivered by the Mahila Court sentencing the convict to life imprisonment without any remission for 30 years, serve as a wake-up call for all stakeholders involved in women's safety.

What was the modus operandi?

According to the police, the modus operandi of the accused was to identify young couples on the campus, threaten to complain about them to the college management, and then take the women to secluded places before sexually assaulting them. Besides the complainant in the present case,

another student too had told the police about the accused having attempted a similar crime against her on the university campus on December 22, 2024. However, a security guard's whistle from a distance saved her. Though this student was included as a prosecution witness in the rape case, no separate charge with respect to the sexual assault attempt on her was framed against the accused because she had failed to identify him during the test identification parade conducted by the police at Puzhal central prison. In her deposition during the trial, the student witness told the court that she did not identify the accused in prison due to fear, but realised it was big mistake much later.