Malappuram: The police on Tuesday arrested a 15-year-old boy for trying to rape a female college student at Kondotty here.
Malappuram SP Sujith Das, speaking to the media after apprehending the class 10 student, said that the boy has no criminal antecedents and according to the victim had never troubled her before.
When the boy fled the scene of the crime, after the woman escaped his clutches, and reached home with his clothes dirty and scratches on his arms and lips, he told his family that he was chased by a dog and had fallen down.
However, when the police reached his home and questioned him, he confessed that he received the injuries while assaulting the 21-year old woman, the officer said. The police had narrowed in on the suspect from CCTV visuals.
The incident took place Monday afternoon. Malappuram district police chief said that the accused is a district-level Judo champion.
A Kondotty police officer said the accused had caught her on her way to college at Kottookara near Kondotty and dragged her to a nearby banana plantation in an attempt to rape the woman.
He hit her with a stone, tied her arms, and pressed down on her neck very hard when she tried to break free from his clutches, but she still managed to escape to the safety of a nearby house, the survivor had told the police.
She reportedly told women members there that the assailant was 'a chubby and fair person with no facial hair'. The accused had also left his slippers at the spot while trying to flee the scene after she escaped.
The police added that the woman who fought back was lucky to escape with her life.
A local woman, who claims to have talked to the survivor and informed her family, told Manorama News that she was half-naked and visibly shaken.
"The girl's hands were tied and there was dirt on her body. She said that she could identify the culprit even though she did not know his name," the woman said.
The officer also said that they were looking into the accused's online activity to ascertain what prompted him to commit the crime.
The woman was rushed to the Kozhikode medical college with injuries to her neck and head. She was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday, police said and added that an FIR has been lodged against the accused for attempted rape and murder.