The allegations against the SPP, Indira Gandhi, date back to 2016, when six minor survivors of sexual assault and rape came to the Sivaganga Mahila court to testify against the perpetrator – their headmaster Murugan.
The Sivaganga Mahila Court on Wednesday directed that Special Public Prosecutor Indira Gandhi be arrested over allegations of her colluding with child sexual abuse perpetrators and intimidating survivors. The SPP was remanded to judicial custody over complaints from minor survivors that she forced them to turn hostile in court.
The allegations against the SPP date back to 2016, when six minor survivors of sexual assault and rape came to the Sivaganga Mahila court to testify against the perpetrator – their headmaster Murugan. On arriving there, however, the SPP allegedly instructed the girls who were aged 10 to deny any abuse and to make false statements in court. According to complaints given by three of the survivors, first reported by TNM, the government lawyer even allegedly made the survivors meet Murugan, and allowed him to coerce them.
One of the girls has said, “Indira Gandhi lawyer only forced me to say what I said in front of court about Murugan teacher. I realised this only after I became a big girl.”
An investigating official tells TNM that the Madras High Court had already denied the SPP anticipatory bail regarding this case.
“When the matter came for hearing in the lower court today, the judge ordered that she be remanded,” says the official. “She will be transferred to police custody in two days so that we can conduct inquiries,” he adds.
The police believe that the SPP will be stripped of her position as the inquiry begins.
“Her cases have already been given to someone else. She has to be formally removed from the post,” says the official.
When TNM had earlier contacted the SPP over the allegations, she denied them and claimed she doesn’t recall even meeting Murugan.
“I don’t know why these girls turned hostile. It is their choice. They are small children, we don’t know what goes on in their minds,” she said. “I never instructed her to say anything, the police are with them all the time,” she added.
The police however stood steadfastly by the survivors, ensuring that there was strong evidence in the form of statements.
“The Public Prosecutor has been acting as a liaison agent between the accused and the survivors,” a senior police official had told TNM. “The girls in this case are from impoverished families and two of them are Dalits. When the headmaster and even the Public Prosecutor constantly badgered and threatened them, they feared that they will not get justice. They were forced to turn hostile,” he further alleged.
The six survivors in this case had faced repeated sexual assault and in some of their cases, even rape at the hands of Headmaster Murugan. He had further threatened to expel them if they revealed the abuse to any adults. In July 2015, one of the survivors, a Dalit, went home after she contracted chicken pox. When she constantly cried because of pain in her private parts , her grandmother sat her down to ask what happened. It was then that the extent of abuse the girls were facing came to light.
Sherin Bosko, founder of Nakshatra, an organisation that works with minor survivors of sexual hailed the Court’s directive and the manner in which the police handled the case. Sherin had personally worked with the survivors who had come forward to file the complaint against the SPP.
“From the very beginning the police have been very supportive. They took immediate action as soon as minors came forward with the complaint and ensured that their identity remained under wraps,” she says. The matter was handled very sensitively and this arrest will prove to be a lesson to any other advocates who attempt to monetise the suffering of minor survivors,” she adds.
Also read: ‘Forced us to talk to rapist, to turn hostile’: 3 minor survivors accuse TN govt lawyer
Source: The News Minute