The Madras High Court on Monday decided to commence monitoring the probe into the Pollachi sexual abuse issue, related to luring of many women into sexual relationships for the purpose of blackmailing them.
The decision was taken after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) stated that it had no objection to such monitoring.
Acting Chief Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice C. Saravanan ordered that the Central agency should henceforth file periodic status reports on the investigation being conducted by it, after filing of a preliminary chargesheet before a lower court. The first of such reports should be submitted in a sealed cover on December 3.
The direction was issued on a batch of public interest litigation petitions filed by the Tamil Nadu Association of Women Advocates, represented by its president K. Santhakumari, a group of seven other women advocates, lawyer P. Pugalenthi and the All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) seeking an impartial probe.
During the last hearing of the batch on October 16, the judges directed the CBI special public prosecutor (SPP) K. Srinivasan to submit the preliminary chargesheet in the High Court too in a proper format and serve copies on the counsel representing various public interest litigants before the court.
However, on Monday advocate Rita Chandrasekhar, representing the women advocates association, complained to the court that the copies of the chargesheet had not been served on any of the counsel.
Preliminary chargesheet
Replying to it, the SPP stated that the chargesheet could not be put in the public domain since the trial was to take place in-camera. He informed the court that the CBI had filed a preliminary chargesheet against as many as five accused — N. Sabarirajan alias Rishwant (26), K. Thirunavukarasu (28), M. Sathish (29), T. Vasantha Kumar (24) and R. Mani alias Manivannan (26), all hailing from Pollachi in Coimbatore district, within month of the commencement of the probe.
They had been charged of offences under Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354B (assault or use of criminal force), 376 (rape) and 392 (robbery) read with Section 34 (acts committed by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code apart from Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act of 2002.
Since the victim women would have to depose before the trial court regarding the overt acts committed by the accused, the presiding officer decided to hold in-camera proceedings. Therefore, it would not be proper to make public the contents of the chargesheet filed against the five accused, Mr. Srinivasan said.
Accepting his submission, the first Division Bench ordered that copies of it need not be shared with the counsel for the PIL litigants. However, when the counsel for AIDWA stated that they were in possession of compact discs to prove involvement of many other accused too, the judges permitted the association to share it with the investigating officer.
The judges also gave liberty to other PIL petitioners before the court to assist the prosecution, in the further investigation of the case, if they were in possession of any credible materials.
During the course of hearing, the SPP stated that the CBI shall do its best to ensure that the five accused do not get released on bail till the completion of trial. “We shall vehemently object if any bail application is filed by the accused. We want them to be remain in prison till the end of trial,” Mr. Srinivasan said.
