“He stopped me...hit me, and robbed everything I had, while I bled,” Lavanya Jangath, the 30-year-old techie who was assaulted early Tuesday said, after she regained consciousness at her hospital bed, on Wednesday.
Early Tuesday, she was was riding her two-wheeler on the Thalambur - Perumbakkam road to reach her office in Navalur in pitch darkness. Even during the day, the long corridor off the Rajiv Gandhi Salai, seems deserted.
Ms. Lavanya, waking up nearly 24 hours after the assault, spoke about her traumatic experience to the police. Police said she told them she had finished attending a client meeting in their office in Guindy. After that, she decided to ride her two wheeler back to her office, Newt Global Technologies, in Navalur. She reportedly told them that her office insisted she take a company cab, but she had told them that she would be comfortable riding her two wheeler. It was after 10-30 p.m., she added.
Under cover of darkness
She then took the deserted Thalambur-Perumbakkam road, riding her two-wheeler in darkness, her path illuminated merely by the headlights of the vehicle.The police say she took a turn, near a narrow culvert in Arasankazhani, 7 km away from Rajiv Gandhi Salai, when a man stopped her and hit her on the head with an iron rod. The attacker grabbed her high end mobile phone, and then snatched her gold chain (1.5 sovereigns), besides speeding away on her two wheeler. She fell, bleeding, and signs of this still stain the earth where she dropped to the ground. She rolled down a natural slope and hit her head on a small rock on the ground.
Lavanya managed to get up and walk up to the road, and tried to hail a few two wheelers on that stretch, seeking help. However, they sped off, thinking it might be an attempt to mug them.The police later recovered her vehicle from a nearby Tasmac outlet.
A police officer, however, said, “The incident occurred around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday and she stopped a few passers-by on two-wheelers. They mistook her and thought she was going to rob them. They sped away and none stopped to help her.”
Bleeding, unconscious
Following an alert from passers-by to the police control room at around 1-30 a.m. on Tuesday, beat officers of Pallikaranai reached the spot and the mobile patrol team joined them. They found Ms. Lavanya bleeding and unconscious. She was taken to a private hospital and had to undergo a surgery.
The police found her ID card, and established her identity, which made it easy for them to contact the company and her family members. Her family members who hail from Andhra, landed in Chennai, but were in a state of shock.
Senior members of the staff of her company said they were not willing to comment about the incident.
Ms. Lavanya completed MS in Information Technology in Andhra and lives alone in Thalambur, while her sister lives in an apartment in nearby Perumbakkam.
