Choreographer held for raping Bengaluru woman he’d given a lift | Bengaluru News

BENGALURU: A 24-year-old choreographer was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old student in Bengaluru after agreeing to drop her home on his scooter past Saturday-Sunday midnight. M Mukeshwaran has no criminal antecedents and was smoked out of his home late Sunday after a hunt of over 12 hours during which the cops scanned footage from 150 CCTVs in a 10km stretch and 1,000 mobile numbers near the crime scene.
Police said Mukeshwaran had partied with friends and was searching for a shop to buy cigarettes when the girl stopped him. He took advantage, diverted his scooter to an isolated place and assaulted the student, police added.
A bachelor, he lives with his mother and four elder sisters. His father had died a few years back, police said. “After fleeing the crime scene, he roamed aimlessly for some time before reaching home,” police said.
Mukeshwaran initially tried to plead innocence but gave in when cops sought an explanation for scratches on his face, an officer said. A team of 40 cops mounted the hunt.
The first clues came from the survivor’s description when she was taken to hospital for medical examination.
“We collected footage from nearly 150 CCTV cameras over 10km, from the place where the survivor boarded the suspect’s bike to the crime scene,” an officer said.
Some other cops winnowed down the search by focusing on the suspect’s white, gearless scooter. “Our technical teams had collected 1,000 mobile numbers of people present in the area at the time. At no point did we manage to see the licence plate of the suspect’s scooter. However, we zeroed in on Mukeshwaran by identifying his vehicle’s colour from CCTV footage and the presence of his mobile phone at the crime scene,” the officer said.