Chennai: Is it a genuine tale of a hero rescuing a damsel in distress or a claim to win cheap popularity? This question will continue to remain unanswered till either the girl, whom Vasanth Paul, a Chennai-based fashion model and photographer claimed to have saved from three alleged rapists, or an auto-rikshaw driver who saved the ‘hero’ from being strangulated to death appear and back his claim.

Vasanth Paul had posted his experience, after returning from watching first day first show of Thalaivar’s Kabali on Friday, heard moaning from a secluded spot and rushed in to see three men trying to disrobe a girl who was drugged.

When he appeared to rescue the girl, the trio attacked him and one of them began strangulating him with a rope that cut into him. Vasanth Paul also posted three picture of his neck with injuries.

Vasanth had claimed that his entry had given the distraught girl a chance to escape and raise alarm, which brought an autorikshaw driver, who inturn bashed up the three baddies. The trip scooted.

Now since there are only persons who can back the claim are untraceable, Paul’s story remains just a claim.

Messages to Vasanth for comment and queries went unanswered.

Senior police officials sent investigating official and few constables with Paul to identity the crime spot, which he could not. Neither could he recreate the scene, about which he so graphically described in his facebook post, which went viral.

Without completely disregarding Paul’s claims completely, Covaipost would like to caution the readers to take these claims with a pinch of salt, howsoever brave and inspiring tale that may have been woven.

In this age of instant communication and hunger for feel good stories, it is quite possible to err, but we at Covaipost like to err on the side of caution.

But like countless other websites and news outlets, we would not like to parrot the claims of the Hero, even if they are true, unless they are verified by a credible authoritative source, which in this case happens to be the police.