All 9 convicts get life sentences for sexual assaults in Pollachi
A Coimbatore court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced nine men to life imprisonment until death in the Pollachi sexual assault case, which had sent shockwaves across Tamil Nadu after incidents of gang rape, filming sexual crimes and extorting multiple survivors came to light in 2019.
The verdict in the case, which had attained political overtones as one of the accused was a political party functionary, saw the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and rival AIADMK hit out at each other over women's safety during their respective rules.
Coimbatore women's court judge R Nandhini Devi, who pronounced the quantum of punishment, ordered an overall compensation of ₹85 lakh to the eight women victims, who testified in the case from Pollachi, a small scenic town about 44 km from Coimbatore.
The nine men were accused of criminal conspiracy, sexual harassment, rape, gang rape, and extortion, in the series of incidents that happened between 2016 and 2018, and came to light a year later.
'They have been convicted on two major offences under sections 376D (gang rape) and 376(2)(n) (repeated rape on the same woman) of the (erstwhile) Indian Penal Code (IPC),' special public prosecutor V Surendra Mohan told reporters after the verdict.
They were given 'life imprisonment till death', as sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the matter, Mohan added.
Earlier in the day, the nine accused — N Rishwanth alias Sabarirajan (26), K Thirunavukkarasu (28), N Sathish (30), T Vasanthakumar (25), R Manivannan alias Mani (31), K Arulanantham (34), P Babu alias 'Bike' Babu (27), Haronimus Paul (29), and M Arunkumar (29) — were brought to the court amid tight security from Salem central prison, where they have been lodged since their arrest in 2019. They had appeared via video link during the trial.
A total of 48 witnesses were examined by the prosecution and none of them turned hostile, Mohan said, adding that over 240 documents, 400 electronic evidence such as forensic-validated videos of the assault were presented before the court.
The defence had sought leniency for the convicts on grounds of their young age and aged parents. The court, however, sentenced them to life imprisonment for the remainder of their natural life.
The case came to light after one of the survivors, a 19-year-old college student, lodged a sexual assault complaint with the police in February 2019 against four accused. She had alleged that the accused she had befriended sexually assaulted her inside a car, filmed the act and threatened to leak the video.
During the investigation, it was found to be the modus operandi — the accused luring the victims, mostly college-going young women, sexually assaulting them either in cars or after taking them to secluded areas. The men were also accused of filming some of their acts and using it to blackmail the survivors.
Initially the local Pollachi police investigated the crime. After then Coimbatore superintendent of police (SP) R Pandiarajan disclosed the name of the complainant–which activists believe dissuaded many survivors from filing complaints– the case was first transferred to CB-CID and later to CBI in March 2019.
The case took a political colour after it came to light that one of the accused, Arulanantham, was a functionary of AIADMK, which was in power when the crime happened. The AIADMK was quick to expel Arulanantham from the party after his name surfaced in the crime. The case triggered massive protests by residents seeking strict action against the accused, and it echoed in the legislative assembly as recently as last month.
Chief minister MK Stalin welcomed the verdict and took a veiled swipe at AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswali, who was the chief minister at the time of the crime.
'Justice has been served for the atrocities committed by the wicked criminals including the AIADMK functionary,' Stalin, who is also the DMK president, said in a post on X. 'Those sirs who tried to protect the guilty in the AIADMK should feel ashamed.'
Palaniswami hit back at the DMK, raking up the sexual assault case of a college student in Chennai's Anna University last year claiming that the lone arrested accused in the case was an alleged DMK supporter.
He also claimed that swift police action, especially in arresting all the criminals, and the prompt decision of his government in handing over the Pollachi case probe to CBI had ensured justice to the victims.
'All offenders in the case were arrested during the previous AIADMK regime. I ordered an impartial CBI probe. The women have received justice today,' he said in a lengthy post on X. 'The AIADMK will expose the DMK in 2026. Then, DMK will hang its head in shame.'
Actor-politician and TVK leader Vijay, the newest entrant in the Tamil Nadu politics, also welcomed the verdict and said it would give solace to the victims, who faced the case with courage and ensured that the criminals were punished.
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