Ex-MLA arrested for maid's rape, murder in Tamil Nadu

Bangalore, Jul 14: Former Perambalur MLA M Rajkumar was arrested yesterday for raping and murdering his 15-year-old maidservant. Perambalur police also picked up the DMK politician's driver Mahendran and one of his close aides Anbarasu.

The victim Sathya was a student of the Peerumedu Government HSS in Idukki district of Kerala. The girl's parents Chandran and Suseela are said to have sold her for a sum of Rs 5000 to three middlemen namely Vijayakumar, Paneer Selvam and Harikrishnan.

The trio handed over Sathya to Mahendran and Jaisankar, an associate of the accused, who took the girl to the ex-MLA's house at Thuraimangalam on Jun 23.

According to Tamil Nadu police, Paneer Selvam had falsely promised Chandran and Suseela that Rajkumar would take care of Sathya's education.

However, the girl phoned her mother on Jun 25 and related how she was being made to work at Rajkumar's house. Even as Chandran and Suseela were on their way to collect Sathya, they got to know that she had been admitted to the Dhanalaskhmi Srinivasan hospital in Perambalur.

There they found that their daughter's condition was very serious. The girl was shifted first to the Kauvery hospital in Tiruchy and later to the Theni government medical college because her parents could not afford the cost of treatment at the private hospital.

However, Sathya did not recover and doctors declared her dead on Jul 6. The post mortem report confirmed that she had been brutally raped.

After Chandran and Suseela lodged a complaint in this connection with the Perambalur police, Rajkumar and his associates were taken into custody. The three accused have been charged with non-bailable offences of kidnap, rape and murder.

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