Rape at needle-point: Kerala tattoo artist arrested after 6 clients file FIRs

Kerala police on Sunday arrested a Kochi-based popular tattoo artist after several of his female clients made complaints of rape, sexual assault, and molestation against him.

The accused Sujeesh PS has been sent to judicial remand for 14 days.

At least six victims filed separate complaints after an 18-year-old woman in a viral social media post accused Sujeesh of raping her during a tattooing session at his studio – Inkected Tatto Studio. The woman said he raped her while holding the tattooing needle to her spine.

While the woman has not filed a police complaint yet, her account has emboldened several victims to come out with their stories and lodge complaints.

“We will be taking 164 statements of the complainants starting tomorrow. As of now, we have six FIRs registered against the accused, who was initially on the run. All are non-bailable offenses. He  surrendered only after he was cornered by the police from all sides,” NDTV quoted CH Nagaraju, the Kochi City Police Commissioner as saying.

Nagaraju said the department is getting a host of similar complaints from other women too.

“There are so many other tattoo studios. We haven’t got complaints against them. All complaints are against this one particular person. Even if the complaints are about incidents from before, we still have means to probe them, including oral evidences and how the complainant would have felt or shared details with her trusted family members or friends, after the ordeal. Because all this is happening within the confines of closed four walls,” Nagaraju said.

Sujeesh was on the run since the incident came to light, and was arrested on Saturday night while trying to meet an advocate. After the arrest, he was taken for questioning to the Cheranalloor police station and produced before the magistrate a day later.

According to police, Sujeesh is a popular tattoo artist in Kochi and has been running his studio at Edappally area for the past 10 years.

Sujeesh’s friends and family, have called the allegations against him a conspiracy by rivals.

“Sujeesh is innocent and these cases are due to business rivalry and we will take legal recourse on this matter. Nothing much to say other than this,” a close friend of Sujeesh told IANS after his arrest.