Identifying the accused as Santhosh D, police said he fled to Hosur after the incident, and then to Salem before reaching Kozhikode.
Published Apr 14, 2025 | 4:40 PM ⚊ Updated Apr 14, 2025 | 4:40 PM
Santhosh worked as a test driver at a car showroom in Brookefield and lived with his mother and brother.
Synopsis: The investigators examined footage from 700 surveillance cameras in a probe that was spread across three states and 10 days.
The Bengaluru police have arrested a 26-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at BTM Layout near Suddegundapalya.
The accused, Santhosh D, was arrested on Sunday, 13 April, from interior Kozhikode in Kerala. He was on the run for the past 10 days.
Santhosh crept up behind the woman, who was with a female friend on a deserted road and assaulted her around 2 am on 3 April. He fled when the women resisted and raised an alarm.
Neither woman reported the incident but a Suddaguntepalya resident, Lokesh Gowda, lodged a complaint and submitted a copy of the footage from a CCTV camera on 4 April. The CCTV visual of the crime had gone viral.
Due to the footage’s poor clarity, the investigation faced significant hurdles. Though the police found the women, they requested privacy and refused to be part of the probe.
The police examined visuals from over 700 CCTVs and tracked Santhosh’s movements across three states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.
He initially fled to Hosur, then to Salem, and later to Kozhikode, police said.
Police sources said the accused worked as a test driver at a car showroom in Brookefield and lived with his mother and brother at Gulbarga Colony in Tilak Nagar.
The accused has been booked under sections 74 (assault or criminal force to a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 75 (sexual harassment), and 78 (stalking) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The incident also kicked up a controversy after Home Minister G Parmeshwara made an insensitive remark, considered to be an attempt to normalise such assaults.
“In a big city like Bengaluru, incidents like this take place here and there,” he reportedly said on 7 April.
However, even as his remark snowballed into a controversy, the minister, the next day, accused the media of distorted reporting.
(With inputs from Dileep V Kumar and Rashmi Patil. Edited by Majnu Babu).
