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The Hindu
13-05-2025
- The Hindu
Pollachi Sexual Assault Case: Life Terms for All Accused as CBI Probe Exposes Organised Racket
Published : May 13, 2025 20:50 IST - 5 MINS READ All nine accused in the sensitive Pollachi sexual assault case have been sentenced to life imprisonment after the Mahila Special Court in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, found them guilty of the heinous crimes of gang rape and extortion. There will be no remissions in their sentences. The crime gained national attention after it came to light in 2019 that a gang of youngsters with strong political connections had coerced scores of college and school-going girls and women into sexual acts. These acts were videotaped and used to blackmail the victims for money and further sexual favours. The incidents had been taking place in and around Pollachi town since 2014, but surfaced only after one of the victims mustered the courage to file a complaint at the Pollachi East police station on February 24, 2019. Following public outrage, the case was transferred first to the CB-CID and later to the CBI. On May 13, Judge R. Nandhini Devi found all nine accused—N. Sabarirajan (32), also known as Rishwanth; K. Thirunavukkarasu (34); M. Sathish (33); T. Vasanthakumar (30); R. Manivannan (32); P. Babu (33); T. Haronimus Paul (32); K. Arulanantham (39); and M. Arunkumar (33)—guilty. All of them hailed from Pollachi or nearby areas. Each accused was sentenced to a different number of life terms—one to five—all to run concurrently. Also Read | Suspended Tamil Nadu Special DGP sentenced to three years for sexual harassment Sections 376D (gang rape) and 376(2)(n) (repeated rape on the same woman) of the IPC, which were invoked against the accused, prescribe rigorous imprisonment of not less than 20 years and can extend to imprisonment for the remainder of the person's natural life. In addition, the accused were charged under various other sections for criminal conspiracy, sexual harassment, abduction, disrobing, and rape, as well as under Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women Act. The judge also ordered a total compensation of ₹85 lakh to be paid to the victims. The CBI investigated the case and filed a 1,500-page charge sheet in which 48 witnesses, including eight girl victims, deposed. It submitted 200 documents and around 350 electronic documents and exhibits such as SIM cards, data and memory cards, laptops, mobiles and video clips. This evidence, CBI's Special Prosecutor Surendra Mohan said, was analysed by forensic and digital experts, and corroborated the statements of witnesses, enabling the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused beyond any doubt. 'Not even one witness turned hostile,' said the CBI counsel. The victims were given psychological counselling to help them come forward and file their complaints against the accused, and they were protected under the Witness Protection Act. 'It was a meticulously investigated case,' he added. A case with many twists The case was that Sabarirajan, based in Pollachi, would befriend young girls and women and lure them to a remote farmhouse, where they were sexually assaulted, often with others joining in. These assaults were videotaped and later used to blackmail the victims for money and further sexual favours. The victims were terrorised into silence, as the perpetrators, aged between 25 and 32, were politically well-connected. One of the accused, Arulanandam, who was then the AIADMK's Pollachi Youth Wing Town Secretary, was arrested in 2021. The seizure of mobile phones belonging to Sabareesan and his associate Thirunavukkarasu revealed the scale of the well-organised sex and extortion racket. Despite the gravity of the offences, only one victim came forward to file a complaint. The Pollachi East Police, which registered the FIR based on her statement, reportedly tried to dilute the case and protect the accused. Since then, a series of bizarre and troubling developments began to unfold. Victims were threatened, and the brother of the girl who first came forward to file the complaint was beaten up. Photographs of some of the accused posing with AIADMK Ministers were circulated in an apparent attempt to intimidate the victims. The government appointed a male officer as the Investigating Officer, which drew sharp criticism from civil society and the legal fraternity. The complainant's identity, including her mobile number, was leaked into the public domain. Another outrageous act followed: a Government Order (GO) dated March 13, 2019, issued by the Tamil Nadu Home Department in connection with the case, publicly revealed the name of the complainant, her college, and her brother's name. Also Read | Gang rape in Thanjavur exposes perpetrators' impunity and flaws in criminal justice system These blatant violations of legal safeguards by the then government sparked a nationwide uproar. Almost all major political parties, including the DMK, the CPI, and the CPI(M), took to the streets demanding a fair investigation. The DMK made it a key issue in its election campaign. Under mounting public pressure, the case was transferred to the CB-CID 20 days after the FIR was filed. However, as tensions escalated, it was eventually handed over to the CBI. The CBI was able to identify 12 girls as victims, but only eight agreed to come forward and file formal complaints. Despite the trauma and distress, all eight stood the trial with remarkable courage in their pursuit of justice. To ensure their safety, the accused were repeatedly denied bail. When a few of them challenged their detention under the Goondas Act in the Supreme Court, the State government strongly opposed their pleas, leading to the cancellation of their petitions. All the accused remained in Salem Central Prison for six years, which helped ensure the continued safety of the victims.
Daily Maverick
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Postwar Liberia still struggles with corruption and impunity
Corruption was a cause of Liberia's 14-year civil war and also triggered the current political crisis that threatens the country's stability. On 23 April, Liberia's supreme court affirmed the legitimacy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Jonathan Fonati Koffa. This followed months of legislative impasse and political crisis triggered by rival legislators' vote to remove Koffa over alleged budget manipulations, overruns and a conflict of interest involving his law firm and government agencies. The legislators, forming the 'Majority Bloc', had voted to elect Richard Koon to replace Koffa. They alleged that Koffa's office overspent its allocation of about $1.5-million by more than $4-million in 2022 and about $3-million in 2023. These amounts, they said, could not be accounted for. The situation disrupted legislative business, provoking protests and apparently causing fires to be set in the Capitol Building. Importantly, it highlights the country's struggle to break from one of the direct causes of its 1989-2003 civil war – corruption and impunity – and the need for renewed and sustained anti-corruption efforts. Among the key objectives of the 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended the conflict, was combating corruption and institutionalising good governance. These were reinforced by recommendations of the truth and reconciliation commission, and successive postwar governments have – at least officially – made them key components of their governance agenda. Key among the several steps taken to achieve these objectives were establishing the Governance Commission in 2007, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission in 2008 and the General Auditing Commission in 2014. In 2022, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission Act was amended to grant direct prosecutorial powers to the commission, in addition to passing a Whistleblower Act and the Witness Protection Act to facilitate public reporting of corrupt acts. In April 2024, the legislature voted to approve President Joseph Boakai's proposal to set up a War and Economic Crimes Court to prosecute perpetrators of serious abuses committed during the civil war. Notwithstanding these efforts, Liberia remains haunted by entrenched corruption, consistently ranking close to the bottom of Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Its score has been less than 40 and has declined since 2013. Institute for Security Studies interviews with several stakeholders point to a culture of political patronage and lack of political will to ensure criminal accountability for corruption. Institutional weakness – and often dysfunctionality – is also among the causal factors that have transcended various governments. These deep-seated challenges were acknowledged in 2016 by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's first postwar president, but have since persisted. She noted that her government had 'not fully met the anti-corruption pledge… because of the intractability of dependency and dishonesty cultivated from years of deprivation and poor governance'. A succession of corruption scandals rocked her government, including those emanating from General Auditing Commission investigations, but for which there were no prosecutions. George Weah, who succeeded Sirleaf, faced immense public unease following several scandals involving his appointees. Like in the Sirleaf era, public appointments based on political connections and personal relations under Weah meant appointees were not prosecuted for corruption. Yet some stakeholders still argued that corruption under Weah became insidious and accounted for his electoral defeat in November 2023. In August 2022, for instance, the US Department of the Treasury sanctioned Liberian government officials Nathaniel McGill, Sayma Syrenius Cephus and Bill Twehway for graft. Former finance minister Samuel Tweah was also sanctioned in December 2023 alongside two senators and Monrovia's mayor, Jefferson Koijee, for involvement in corruption and, in Koijee's case, human rights abuses. None of these cases resulted in prosecutions, a situation that has drawn criticism of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission for failing to exercise its prosecutorial powers. However, it reflects the resource and capacity constraints and lack of political and fiscal independence faced by the commission and other anti-corruption institutions, particularly the General Auditing Commission. Much like his predecessors, Boakai has sought to strike the right tone by promising to fight corruption. In February he suspended more than 450 government officials, including the health and education ministers and high-ranking state institution officials. They were accused of undermining 'national efforts to combat corruption and ensure accountability' by failing to declare assets as required by law. Yet, the president has been criticised for being selective and politically motivated by suspending certain officials for corrupt acts while leaving others with the same allegations untouched. Boakai's anti-corruption agenda also faces other challenges. His appointment of Jonathan Massaquoi to head the Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court – the body mandated to prepare the legal grounds for the court's establishment – sparked controversy over Massaquoi's previous legal representation of Agnes Taylor, wife of convicted former president Charles Taylor. Rooting out corruption and institutionalising good governance remains a vital postwar imperative. Doing so requires far more than setting up anti-corruption frameworks. Stakeholders must tackle the culture of patronage, promote criminal accountability for corrupt acts and remove political and resource impediments to institutional effectiveness. The current political crisis, rooted in allegations of corruption, also offers a unique opportunity for Liberia to take stock of its good governance and anti-corruption progress and renew its efforts. DM Sampson Kwarkye, project manager for Littoral West African States, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) Regional Office for West Africa and the Sahel.
