A 28-year old woman construction worker was abducted and raped by two drunk men near Pollachi. The police have arrested one of them.

The accused – R. Vimal alias Vimalraj (27) and Karthik (26) – both auto drivers, took the woman to an isolated place along Kumaran Nagar to Vadugapalayam railway line, and sexually exploited her on Saturday night, police said.

The woman’s husband, also an auto driver, had left her at her parents’ house, following a quarrel over the issue of her working as a construction labourer. The woman had called her brother, Prabhu, and asked him to reunite her with the husband. He, along with the two accused (who were known to the woman), came to her house on Saturday night and convinced her to bring back the husband.

Prabhu, on receiving a call, left the house to meet his brother-in-law, even as the duo enacted a drama that the husband was waiting for her, and took her in an auto, police said. When they reached an isolated place, both consumed liquor and asked the woman to have sex with them. When she refused, they beat her up and sexually assaulted her, police said.

After the rapists left, she called her husband, who rushed to the spot and admitted her to a hospital.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the two, under Sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous means or weapons), 376 (punishment for rape), and 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation), of the IPC.

The police have arrested Vimal. A manhunt is on for Karthik.