Bengaluru molestation case: Accused traced using CCTV, arrested after chase in Kerala

synopsis

Bengaluru police on Sunday arrested a 26-year-old man who allegedly molested a young woman in Suddaguntepalya, southeast Bengaluru, earlier this month. The accused, Santosh Daniel, was traced to Naduvilangadi village in Kerala after evading arrest for nearly a week.

The incident occurred in the early hours of April 3, when the victim and her friend were returning to their PG accommodation in Bharati Layout after a late-night tea outing. At around 1:52 AM, Santosh allegedly accosted the women, pushing one of them against a wall and molesting her. The act was captured on a CCTV camera installed outside a nearby building and quickly went viral on social media, sparking public outrage.

Though the victim initially refused to lodge a complaint and objected to the circulation of the video online, the police registered a suo motu FIR on April 6 based on a complaint by a concerned businessman who had posted the video online.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South-East) Sarah Fathima confirmed the arrest and said that Santosh would be brought back to Bengaluru and produced in court on Monday, where police will seek custody for further interrogation. “Four special teams were formed to track him. We scanned footage from over 600 CCTV cameras and searched lodges in Hosur, Salem, and Kozhikode,” she said.

According to police sources, Santosh, a test driver at an imported car showroom in Brookefield, fled the city on April 9 after realising that he had been identified. The accused first travelled by bus to Hosur, spent a night there, and then moved to Salem and Kozhikode before taking refuge at a relative's home in Naduvilangadi, Kerala.

His arrest came after police painstakingly identified his gearless scooter from CCTV footage and traced the vehicle’s registration details to his residence in Gulbarga Colony, Tilak Nagar. By then, he had already left the city. With his mobile phone switched off and no financial transactions to trace, police relied solely on surveillance footage and fieldwork to track his movements across states.

Santosh lived with his mother and younger brother, an auto driver, in Bengaluru. His family hails from Thally in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district.