Pollachi sex scandal: PIL in HC seeks court-monitored probe

Chennai: An advocate, who is also the director of Prisoners Rights Forum, has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Madras high court, seeking a court-monitored probe conducted by the CBI in to the Pollachi sex scandal  in the state, in which hundreds of girls are allegedly victimized.

The PIL filed by advocate P.Pugalenthi is likely to come up for hearing next week.

In his PIL, Pugalenthi submitted that while transferring the two criminal cases from Crime Branch CID to CBI, the state government had carefully considered the letter of DGP recommending such a transfer. In the said G.O, the state government stated that "the DGP has also stated that the two cases were transferred to Crime Branch CID in his office proceedings dated March 12, 2019. Since the investigation involves technical issues including analyzing of face book data, I.P, Logs/addresses and internet usage logs, the communication with face book service providers and other internet service providing places in various countries, nature of the crime is extremely serious thereby demanding some specialized attention and requires more laborious and dedicated investigation with technical expertise".

Thus, according to DGP, nature of the crime was extremely serious and the investigation demands "some specialized attention" and the cases require "more laborious and dedicated investigation with technical expertise. These observations of DGP appear to have been made on the basis of the investigation made into those two cases up to March 12, 2019, he added.

He said the people of Tamil Nadu, in general, strongly believe that the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the arrested persons and others were innumerable.

The observations of DGP support the perception of the people of Tamil Nadu in general. The Women Commission of the State of Tamil Nadu had called upon the victims to lodge complaints with them and assured the victims safety and confidentiality.

The National Commission for Women had already addressed a letter to DGP seeking an action taken report. The sexual assault suffered by a large number of young girls was yet to be deducted and the persons who have committed such barbaric acts were yet to be brought to book. It was unfortunate that the state has ignored the fundamentals of justice and disclosed the name of the victim of sexual assault thereby preventing other victims from lodging such complaints.

Since the person mentioned in the G.O was not the only victim of sexual assault and since DGP himself believes that the criminal cases in question demand more laborious and dedicated investigation and since the offence complained of was worse than "rape", the entire investigation in to the 2 cases and other cases likely to arise deserves to be monitored by the court, he added.