A vacant lot near the Coimbatore airport where a 20-year-old college student was gang-raped by three men on the night of November 2. Photo Credit: Photo File
The three persons convicted of gang-raping a college student in a deserted area near the Coimbatore International Airport on the night of November 2, 2025, came to the scene after committing another serious crime.
The convicts, T. Karuppasamy alias Satheesh, 30, his brother T. Kaleeswaran alias Karthik, 21, and M. Guna alias Thavasi, 20, had an altercation with a cowherd, namely M. Devaraj, 55, at Serayampalayam under the jurisdiction of the Kovilpalayam police station on the same day.
They assaulted Devaraj, allegedly after he questioned them about consuming alcohol in the open. He was found dead at the scene on November 6.
“They were not sure if Devaraj died on the spot. After the ambush, they fled the spot. They came to the ground near Brindhavan Nagar on a stolen moped to consume alcohol,” said a police officer.
The trio targeted the university student and her boyfriend as they sat in his car on the ground and prepared to drive off at around 10.50pm.
Guna broke the glass on the side of the driver’s seat and Karuppasamy hit the windshield with a machete. When Karuppasamy pressed the gun to the young man’s neck, he tried to block with his hands and injured his hands. When the young man was getting out of the car, the trio attacked him and took his mobile phone.
When the youth collapsed on impact, the trio pulled the student from the car and drove her to a deserted area on the north side of the country and sexually assaulted her.
“The accused allegedly saw the flashes of flashlights from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology campus as the survivor screamed for help. She was then taken to a deserted area behind the Government Polytechnic to a sewage treatment plant motor station and sexually assaulted until 3.45am (November 3). She was let go after an earring was robbed by an officer.
According to the police, one of the accused gave the deceased his shirt along with the trousers stolen from the staff compound. They made her climb the wall that separates the campus and Brindhavan Nagar, where she sought shelter in the neighborhood around 4 am.
Surveillance camera images collected by police from the government polytechnic showed them driving onto Avinashi Road through the campus at 3.59am
After waking up, the friend raised an alarm at 11.22 am from the mobile phone of the motorist at Brindhavan Nagar – SIHS Colony Road. Although about 100 police officers combed the vast terrain and the nearby railway line, they failed to locate the accused and the survivor. They later found the survivor who had sought shelter in a house in Brindhavan Nagar after being alerted by people who helped her.
Investigators found that the trio reached Saravanampatta after the crime and boarded a bus to Sathyamangalam. One of them pawned one earring (the other was lost during the escape) to a known person and collected the money. They later returned to Saravanampatta and headed to Vellakinar from where the police arrested them after shooting them in the legs. The police traced them to Vellakinar after examining visuals from about 300 surveillance cameras. A moped, which was stolen from the Kovilpalayam station limits on October 30 and left on the ground, also helped the police in their investigation.
Published – 07 March 2026 20:30 IST
