7 College Students Arrested For Allegedly Raping Minor Girl Met On Social Media In TN's Coimbatore

BJP state chief K Annamalai said the 'gang rape by seven students is extremely shocking.'

Coimbatore:Seven college students were arrested in Coimbatore in a POCSO case for allegedly raping a minor girl they met through social media, police said on Tuesday.

One among the seven suspects who were arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, had befriended the 17-year-old girl on social media and invited her to meet him at a house where his friends joined him in committing the crime.

The girl who lives with her grandmother had left the house on the day of the incident and did not return home after a long time. The Ukkadam police registered a case based on a missing complaint by the grandmother.

The girl then reached back her grandmother's home the next day. Upon receiving the information, the police interrogated the girl. During the investigation, the police learned that the minor girl befriended the youth through social media. According to police, the youth invited her to Kuniyamuthur where he said he was staying.

Upon reaching the room where the youth was residing, he along with his friends sexually assaulted her. Based on the information given by the girl, the Ukkadam police arrested seven students from various colleges in Coimbatore.

Expressing shock over the incident, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that it was 'deeply distressing' that, under the 'Stalin model DMK government', Tamil Nadu was becoming an unsafe state even for young girls.

In a post on the social media platform 'X', he demanded stringent action against the arrested.

BJP state chief K Annamalai said the 'gang rape by seven students is extremely shocking.' "Such collective sexual violence against girls shows that due to the rampant use of drugs, young people are descending into a state of animalistic behaviour," he said in a post on 'X'.

He said the entire country was shaken by Nirbhaya. But in Tamil Nadu, every day women, girls, students, female police officers and female government officials were completely unsafe.