Escaped Murder and Rape Suspect M. Jaishankar Is Caught Near Bijapur After Seven Weeks on the Run
Police said a woman he allegedly tried to molest raised the alarm, and people recognized him from wanted posters. He faced 19 cases of murder and rape.
Published
M. Jaishankar, accused of rapes and murders across Tamil Nadu, had been at large for seven weeks after escaping his police escort. On May 4, 2011, he was caught near Bijapur, Karnataka.
Police sources told The Times of India that Jaishankar, 33, was caught after he allegedly tried to molest a woman near Bijapur and she raised an alarm, and that people who gathered recognized him from his photograph. Wanted posters had been put up in hotels, railway stations and bus stands across Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. A special team from Coimbatore left for Karnataka to confirm the identity of the man arrested. Jaishankar, a truck driver from Salem district, was accused in 19 cases of murder and rape. According to Superintendent of Police N. Arivuselvam, he was wanted in eight rape cases, three murder cases, four attempted murder cases and one assault case in six Tamil Nadu districts.
He had been arrested in October 2009, accused of the rape and murder of M. Jayamani, 39, a constable at the Kangeyam all-women police station, and was held in Coimbatore Central Prison. On March 18, 2011, as two armed reserve constables escorted him back to Coimbatore from a court appearance in Dharmapuri, he escaped at the Salem bus stand at about 9:30 p.m. One of the escorts, Constable M. Chinnasamy, 25, took his own life early the next morning. In April, Coimbatore police commissioner C. Sylendra Babu said Jaishankar had raped and murdered six women in Bellary, Karnataka, after the escape, and police said he had also killed two people in Dharmapuri district.
In April police said Jaishankar had raped and murdered six women in Bellary after his escape, while the report on his capture said he was accused in four murder-and-rape cases in Karnataka.
Sources
- Serial killer held in Karnataka, The Times of India
- Criminal rapes, kills 6 women after escape from Salem, The Times of India
- Constable kills himself after accused in custody escapes, The Times of India