HR employee sexually assaulted at knifepoint in front of boyfriend; shocking incident in Kochi's abandoned building

KOCHI: A 24-year-old woman who arrived with her boyfriend at night in an empty multi-storey building in Ernakulam city was brutally raped by three youngsters at knifepoint. The woman was stripped naked in front of her boyfriend and molested for about an hour. The woman, who strongly resisted the rape, escaped by running down the fire escape from the 10th floor of the building completely naked. The main accused, N.S. Danish (28) of Danish Manzil, Edava, Thiruvananthapuram, and Rahul (39) of Attinpuram, Paravur, Kollam, were arrested by the Ernakulam Central Police within 24 hours. The search for the third accused, Atul, is ongoing. All three are history sheeters.

The woman, an MBA graduate and an HR employee at a private company, was subjected to sexual assault, an incident unheard of in Kochi's history.

The incident took place at 10 pm on Tuesday on the 10th floor of the Beaumonde Hotel, which has been closed for years on Vivekananda Road behind the Ernakulam South Railway Station Reservation Centre. The woman and her boyfriend, a native of Ernakulam, were going upstairs in the building when they saw the accused drinking alcohol on the ground floor.

Later, Danish, who came upstairs with his friends, demanded that the woman engage in intercourse with him. When she refused, he held her boyfriend at knifepoint and tore off her underwear, stripping her naked. In a bid to escape, she bit Danish's hand and injured him. The woman pushed away the three attackers and ran down the fire escape of the building with her friend. When she reached downstairs, her boyfriend covered her body with his jacket. When the woman called the helpline, the police arrived and took both of them to the central station. In the meantime, the accused escaped with the young man's bag.

*The police received information that three men had arrived near the building on a bike in the morning after the incident. The two accused were arrested by following the bike number obtained from the CCTV.

*The third accused, Atul, who had taken her boyfriend's sunglasses from the woman's bag, had posted a photo wearing the same on social media.

*The woman initially did not fully disclose the facts to the police. She just said that she was threatened with a knife. The police came to know the full details of the assault when they questioned the accused, Rahul, on Wednesday morning. The woman was subjected to counselling.