A 28-year-old woman who travelled 300 km to meet a man she befriended online was gang-raped by the man and his three friends in north Kerala’s Kozhikode, police said on Friday.
Police said the four drugged her, took turns to rape her and filmed the assault before they finally dumped her a short distance from a private hospital. They warned her against complaining to the police, threatening to put out videos and photos of the assault on the Internet.
“The hospital alerted the police,” assistant commissioner of police K Sudarshan said, adding that the accused left her near a hospital because they were afraid she may die. Her condition now is stable, he said.
The woman, who is still under treatment at the hospital, shared the phone number of the man she was in touch with and some other details to help the police track down the accused.
Police officer Sudarshan said two accused including P Anas, the man she became friends with over short video streaming mobile application TikTok, have been arrested.
The woman, a resident of Kollam in south Kerala, had been in touch with Anas for nearly two years on social media. Anas insisted that they meet and invited her to come to Kozhikode. She finally made the trip on Thursday.
He took her to a flat in the city; his friends later joined in. The accused first forced the woman to drink liquor and then some substance, possibly narcotics, and then raped her one by one.
One of the accused has criminal antecedents, police said.
