Plea for court-monitored probe in Pollachi rape case

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court for a court-monitored CBI probe into the sexual assault of a college student from Pollachi town in Tamil Nadu and alleged the involvement of a wider network of politically-connected men in such crimes on a regular basis.

Two advocates sought a direction from the court to provide protection to the victims and their immediate family members and to keep their identities secret.

In a joint petition, advocate A Rangarajan and Y William Vinoth Kumar contended that the investigation in the matter should be monitored by this court as "the entire scandal seems to have been done with political nexus and the victims have already suffered a barbaric sexual assault and the hard-core criminals are a menace to the society".

They sought a direction to transfer the probe to the CBI and shift the trial outside Tamil Nadu.

They urged the court to initiate a departmental enquiry against R Pandiarajan, Coimbatore Rural Superintendent of Police, for revealing the identity of the victim.

One of the victims lodged a police complaint on February 24 alleging that she was forced to have a sexual relationship and was subjected to physical torture, sexual harassment and a nude video of her was taken by a gang of four, who were a part of the sex mafia.

An FIR was registered in the Pollachi East Police Station for the offences under Section 392, 354 A and 354 B of the IPC, section 66 E of IT Act and Section 4 of Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment act.