The POCSO court in Chennai has reserved the verdict in the case of the 11-year-old hearing impaired girl who was sexually assaulted allegedly by 17 men in Ayanavaram, Chennai. The shocking case came to light in July 2018, after the victim spoke about her trauma to her elder sister.
In July 2018, Tamil Nadu woke up to the gruesome story of a minor who was sexually assaulted allegedly by as many as 17 men in her apartment complex in Ayanavaram, Chennai, over a period of time. The men who allegedly sexually assaulted the hearing impaired girl included the elderly liftman in the apartment and many other men in their twenties. The news sent shockwaves across the state and the police immediately arrested all 17 men — Ravikumar (56), Suresh (32), Rajasekar (40), Erald Bross (58), Sugumaran (65), Abishek (23), Murugesu (54), Paramasivam (60), Palani (40), Jayaganesh (28), Gunasekaran (55), Babu (36), Deenadayalan (50), Jayaraman (26), Surya (23), Raja (30) and Umapathy (42) — and invoked the Goondas Act on them in September. Though the Goondas Act on the accused was quashed by the Madras High Court in January, their request for bail was rejected. Babu, one of the accused, died after a brief illness in February.
The trial in the case began in the Mahila court in Chennai in January 2019, in which all the accused had their own lawyers representing them. Speaking about the trial, Public Prosecutor N Ramesh told TNM that all the accused were given sufficient time to cross-examine all the witnesses in the case. “From the prosecution side, we have submitted 120 evidences and had 36 witnesses from our side. The defence side had seven witnesses on their side. In fact, the cross-examination of the police officer who investigated the case lasted for almost a month. That is how much time the defence got in the trial,” he explained. The deposition by all the witnesses in the case runs upto 1,500 pages, he said.
Describing the trial, Ramesh said that the defence had also resorted to character assassination of the minor survivor, including questioning her “morals” and accusing her of sleeping with many other men. “Many such stories were brought inside the written arguments of the defence during the trial. The doctors had stated in detail about the victim’s injuries but the defence tried to twist it to question the character of the victim and her sister. But despite all that, the prosecution is confident of getting the accused convicted in the case,” he added.
The arguments in the case concluded on Friday and the Mahila Judge RN Manjula has reserved the verdict without mentioning the date.
Also read: Shocked silence, simmering rage: Chennai gated community grapples with child rape case
Source: The News Minute