Gokul Vannan/ENS

Chennai, May 30: A 26-year-old American woman has alleged that two men outraged her modesty on May 24 after taking her to a house in Anna Nagar.

She also said that the duo stole her mobile phone and camera. Katherine (name changed), residing in an apartment block in Alwarpet, in a complaint to Teynampet police, identified her molesters as her friend Joseph Mathew, a businessman of Shenoy Nagar, and a teenager who had accompanied him.

The incident reportedly happened after the three had alcohol at a hotel.

Katherine, a teacher in private school in the city, and her husband Alan (name changed), a software engineer working in an IT company here, had gone to the hotel for dinner. After dinner, while Alan left for home, Katherine went to the bar with a woman friend. Mathew came and joined her at the bar.

In her complaint, Katherine said when she decided to leave around 1 am, Mathew offered to drop her home. The car dropped Katherine, Mathew and his teenaged acquaintance at the house in Anna Nagar. Katherine said she could not recollect what happened thereafter.

Subsequently, according to Katherine’s complaint, two BPO employees, Saravanan and Joseph, found her, badly bruised, walking towards Shanthi Colony well after 3 am. They helped her get back home after which she underwent a checkup at a private hospital.

Katherine said the examination revealed that she had not been raped but could have been molested. Following this, she approached the US Consulate, which forwarded her complaint to the city commissioner of police.

Police are investigating the complaint after registering a case under sections 354 (assault or criminal force on woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 379 (punishment for theft) and 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC against Mathew.

Police said Mathew was absconding. Teynampet ACP R Kannabiran told this website's newspaper, “She told us that she does not remember what happened in the house in Anna Nagar, but expressed apprehension that Mathew might have taken pictures of her in a compromising state.

"In fact, our inquiry shows that her husband, after getting himself dropped at home, sent their driver back to the hotel with the car to wait for her.

"When the driver called him around 3 am to say that she had still not come, he was asked to wait. It was only subsequently, that the driver was asked to return home,” he added.