Pollachi Sexual Assault: Plea in Supreme Court for Court-Monitored Probe, trial outside Tamil Nadu

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a Court-monitored probe into the Pollachi sexual assault and extortion case, on apprehensions that an impartial investigation in the matter is being hindered by the Tamil Nadu police and political clout..Notably, the petition filed by advocates A Rajarajan and Y William Vinoth Kumar through advocate T Harish Kumar points out that the police had even revealed the name of the survivor whose complaint had brought the sex racket to light. This was in complete contravention of the guidelines to be followed in the investigation of sex crimes..In February this year, news broke about a gang in Pollachi and Coimbatore, which had blackmailed hundreds of college-going women into being raped. As per reports, the gang would contact the women using fake social media accounts and lure them into meetings, where the women were sexually molested and recorded on camera. The video recordings were used to further blackmail them..The racket came to light after the brother of a survivor lodged a police complaint on behalf of his sister. The case assumed political overtones after the brother was reportedly attacked for having lodged the complaint by a group of persons including a youth wing member of the ruling AIADMK party, who was expelled from the party shortly after that..The videos also surfaced on social media involving blurred visuals of women pleading with their assailants to let them go while being subjected to sexual molestation. While making arrests in the case, the police recovered mobile phones with similar videos from the accused. Four persons arrested in the case are presently in judicial custody..Amidst public outcry, the Coimbatore Superintendent of police, R Pandiarajan revealed the names of the survivor and her brother during a press conference. Even as the police faced public criticism for the same, the Tamil Nadu Government revealed the survivor’s name, as well as the college she studied in, in a GO meant to transfer the Pollachi sexual assault case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)..The petition before the Supreme Court contends that such a revelation of the survivor’s identity is only meant to deter other survivors from coming forward..“… the said act of revealing the identity of the victim and their family member and confining the investigation only into the case in hand is nothing but intentional act with ulterior motives i.e.to discourage the yet to be identified victims of the sex mafia to come out and air their grievance.“.It is also argued that the investigative authorities have been reluctant to proceed against the accused given that the case is tied to politically connected persons. In this regard, the petition notes,.“.. consequent to the lethargic behaviour of the Superintendent of police, the friends of the above stated accused persons who were also suspected as members of sex mafia, attacked and criminally intimidated the brother of the victim girl. Because of the same case with crime number 60 of 2019 was registered ….… investigation team under the Superintendent of Police Mr.R.Pandiarajan was attempting to underplay the entire issue by confining the case in hand alone and was hesitant to proceed further to nab the whole sex mafia which was operating for around 7 years in and around the town of Pollachi ….The petitioners states that the motive for the Superintendent of police for doing the above stated act was to safeguard the image of the ruling party and to secure its vote bank during the upcoming parliamentary elections….… The petitioner states that one of the prime accused person in the above-mentioned case was an office bearer of the ruling party and there is a strong suspicion that some other influential ruling party members are also part of the sex mafia.“.In view of these contentions, the petitioners have prayed that the Supreme Court monitor the probe into the case. The petition also prays that allied directions be issued to ensure that there is a conducive atmosphere for other victims to come forward with their complaints. To this end, it has been prayed that the Court orders that the trial of all cases in the Pollachi sexual assault matter be conducted outside Tamil Nadu..Further, it is also prayed that directions be issued so that the identity of survivors remain confidential and that the media is restricted from publishing videos of the victims or conducting a media trial. The petition also seeks initiation of a departmental inquiry against SP R Pandiarajan for having revealed the identity of the victim..The instant petition comes close on the heels of a similar plea being declined by the Madras High Court earlier this week. On a related note, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court today directed the Central Government to pull down any videos of the Pollachi sexual assault victims from the internet..The direction was passed by a Bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and SS Sundar on a PIL filed by one, Ilamugil. Further, in view of the government having revealed the survivor’s name while issuing the GO transferring the case to the CBI, the Court has also directed that a fresh GO be issued in respect to the same without revealing the identity of the survivor. Inter alia, the Court has also directed that the state government pay a sum of Rs 25 lakhs to the survivor as compensation for having disclosed her name..Moreover, the Court has directed that counselling services be provided by the government to all survivors and that disciplinary action be initiated against the police for having disclosed the identity of the survivor.