Fearing arrest, sex abuse accused ends life

KRISHNAGIRI

: A 28-year-old accused in a sex abuse case committed suicide by hanging in his house near Denkanikottai here on Friday night,

fearing arrest

.

The deceased was identified as Santhu alias Santha Kumar, 28, of Koranur village. He was a

coolie

.

According to a police officer, a 17-year-old girl from the same village had on Thursday lodged a harassment case against him with the Denkanikottai all-woman police.

The compliant, who is employed with a private company, said Santha Kumar had on Wednesday evening offered to drop her at her house on bike while she was waiting for bus to return home after work. The girl said she was sexually abused on their way home.

Police registered a case and initiated inquiry. Santha Kumar, however, went into hiding when he came to know about this.

He returned home when his parents left for work on Friday. When they returned at night, they found their son hanging from the ceiling of the house and alerted the Denkanikottai police.

Police personnel retrieved the body from the ceiling and sent it to the nearby government hospital for postmortem. They have registered a case and further inquiry is on.