Kidnapped teen rescued after chase
A businessman’s 19-year-old son was rescued within 48 hours of being kidnapped near the Chennai airport last week.
Abhishek left his Poes Garden home on getting a call from a woman from Kotturpuram. However his father Ravisundaram alerted police after getting a ransom call for Rs20mn the next morning.
Police devised a plan and asked Ravisundaram to meet the kidnappers alone near the Semmozhi Poonga. However police also followed him and caught the kidnappers. They told the police that Abishek was being held in a car across the city near the airport.
Another team of plainclothes men were sent to the airport, but the panicky occupants fled in the car and finally abandoned Abishek on the Pallavaram flyover.
The search is on for the occupants of the car. The arrested gang confessed that the kidnap was planned by a former employee of Ravisundaram.
Girl accuses father, police officer of rape
The Madras High Court has ordered the arrest of a senior police officer and three others for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl, who had tried to file a sexual abuse complaint, at their station in Sivaganga, about 400km south of Chennai last week.
The girl’s complaint was registered by Vincent, a Chennai-based lawyer and social activist, in the high Court on June 4 because the Sivaganga police ignored her case. Finally her aunt Selvi living in Coimbatore led her to Vincent.
The petition said that the girl had been raped by her father Muthupandi, brother Karthik and their friends besides several high ranking police officers. Her father’s friend even forced her to abort twice in the past two years. Vincent also said that the girl had been drugged before each assault.
The girl said that she was motherless and named 25 men as her abusers to the district magistrate. Muthupandi and Karthick were arrested last month while the search is on for others.
CM extends financial aid to ageing poet
Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa has given financial support of Rs500,000 and a monthly pension to ageing poet and Tamil film lyricist P K Muthusamy on learning of his penurious circumstances from media reports.
Muthusamy, 96, is living in his village R Pudupatti in Namakkal district, in a rented apartment despite a legendary career in films, drama and stage. He has written over 60 songs in films that include Mannukku Manam Bharamba song from the 1958 Tamil film Thai Pirandhal Vazhi Pirakkum and Chinna Nadai Nadanthu Vanthu in the 1955 film Kaveriyin Kannan.
Kolu dolls sale goes online
Dolls exhibited during the Kolu festival falling in the Hindu month of Navarathri are now being sold online in Tamil Nadu.
Makers of kolu dolls have tied up with e-commerce websites to sell their products.
Customers from the US, UK, Europe and Australia have begun buying the dolls. They use apps to choose dolls or get them custom-made by pre-ordering.
Kolu dolls are made of papier mache, clay, metal and other colourful materials.
During the festival, the kolu dolls of Hindu gods, animals, sports teams, farmers and others are showcased on multi-tiered platforms inside homes, offices, schools and other establishments.
