The Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) on Monday filed a voluminous charge sheet in the case relating to the blackmail and repeated rape of a woman by seven persons, including three juveniles. Separate charge sheets were filed against the accused adults and the minor boys.
The CB-CID Deputy Superintendent of Police, S.S. Vinothini, filed a 806-page charge sheet against the four adults — Hariharan, Madasamy, Praveen and Junaith Ahmed — before Additional district Judge B.C. Gopinath, who holds additional charge of the Special Court for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The victim belongs to a Scheduled Caste. According to sources, the investigating agency has charged the accused under 16 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Information Technology Act and the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Ms. Vinothini also produced around 90 documents, video and audio clippings and the mobile phones of the accused. The woman was allegedly blackmailed with a video clip of hers and subjected to repeated sexual assault by the accused.
The case was initially registered in March by the Virudhunagar district police, who had arrested all the accused. They were initially booked under sections of the IPC and under the provisions of the Information Technology Act and the SC/ST (POA) Act.
However, the case was later transferred to the CB-CID. According to sources, the agency included a section for gangrape and added more sections under both the IT Act and the SC/ST (POA) Act.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had assured in the Assembly that the case would be investigated expeditiously to ensure that the accused would get exemplary punishment. Based on the recommendation of the CB-CID, all four adult accused in the case were detained under the Goondas Act in April.
The 22-year-old woman, a worker at a garment unit in Virudhunagar, had complained that Hariharan, with whom she had a love affair, had videographed her without her knowledge. He and his friends had threatened to upload the video on social media and repeatedly sexually abused her.
A separate charge sheet was filed against the three juveniles before the Juvenile Justice Board. While four juveniles were initially found to be involved in the case, the CB-CID dropped him from the case after investigation revealed that he was not involved in the crime.
