The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking a court-monitored probe in the Pollachi sexual assault case. The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by A Rajarajan and William Vinoth Kumar who sought a court-monitored probe into the matter.
The petition also requested stringent action against the former Coimbatore SP, Pandiarajan, who had revealed the identity of the survivor. The plea also sought the transfer of all cases related to the Pollachi sexual assault outside the state of Tamil Nadu.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi heard the plea on Friday. The bench refused to entertain the plea and directed the petitioners to approach the high court.
Incidentally, on April 1, the government of Tamil Nadu transferred the Coimbatore SP, R Pandiarajan, Pollachi DSP, R Jayaram and A Natesan, the inspector in the Pollachi town east police station, who were investigating the case. The team had faced flak for revealing the identity of the survivor in the case.
The survivor had filed a police complaint on February 24, accusing four men – Thirunavukkarasu, Sabarirajan (a) Riswandh, Sathish and Vasanthakumar – of sexually assaulting her. Though the police arrested all the accused, the case was soon transferred to the CB-CID due to tremendous pressure from various quarters.
The case came out in the open in late February when the woman filed a police complaint against the men. According to her complaint, she was friends with Thirunavukkarasu and Sabarirajan, whom she knew through social media. On February 12, the two men took her in a car with the other two accused and allegedly sexually assaulted her. They also allegedly took videos of her and later used it to extort money from her. The woman, unable to bear the torture, went to the police and filed a complaint.
Source: The News Minute