New Delhi: Large-scale sexual exploitation of women by a gang reported from Tamil Nadu's Pollachi has caused widespread outrage. It is feared that more women could have been preyed on by the men and police have appealed to likely victims to come forward.
Police said they have arrested four men – Thirunavukkarasu, Sabarirajan, Vasanthakumar, and Satish – based on a complaint by an alleged victim, and were investigating if the accused were serial offenders.
The four men had on February 12 allegedly tried to strip the victim, a 19-year old woman, inside a car near Pollachi, over 500 km from Chennai, and had shot a video of the act and blackmailed her using the visuals.
The harassment drew widespread condemnation after a leaked video of the survivor, in which she could be heard screaming and resisting her assailants, surfaced.
Senior police official R Pandiarajan said that police have recovered four videos from the arrested men, involving other victims. He said numerous women could have been targeted by them, but declined to give specifics.
The Coimbatore (Rural) Police believes that the network of criminals will be about 15 members and are currently probing it. They have sent the mobile phones for analysis in an effort to gather more details.
Modus operandi
According to the police, the accused would befriend women on social media first. After gaining the women's confidence, she would be invited to a secluded place and sexually assaulted which was also videographed. Later the victims were blackmailed for money or for physical submission. Some media reports claimed nearly 200 women were abused by the accused in this manner.
Political angle
The case has received widespread media coverage in the state weeks before a general election, with opposition parties accusing the state government of "shielding" the perpetrators. Opposition parties led by DMK on Tuesday protested against what they called a lack of progress in the investigation.
In an apparent move to take the wind out of DMK's sails after the party targeted the ruling AIADMK asking if it was protecting the accused, the state government decided to order a CBI probe into the case, hours after it was shifted to the Crime Branch CID from local police.
AIADMK party on Monday expelled its worker Nagaraj for assaulting a victim's brother.
Meanwhile, V Jayaraman, deputy speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, told the media that opposition parties were trying to spread rumours to tarnish his name by linking his family members to the alleged crime.
Thirunavukkarasu, one of the arrested, had released a video when he was in hiding, saying politicians were also involved and wanted the case to be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
