Coimbatore: Even as protests erupted in neighbouring towns and the lawyers’ community demanded an enquiry commission led by a retired high court judge, the Pollachi sex scam case was handed over to a CB-CID special team on Wednesday, led by a woman officer in the rank of Superintendent of Police.
Four alleged offenders were recently arrested and booked under the Goondas Act, while a distant relative of one of the victims met the district collector and demanded action against the people making politics out of the scam.
He also told the press that the Tamil Nadu Assembly Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman was the one who was supporting the victims on the issue, while a few other politicians were attempting to divert the issue to derive political mileage for the upcoming elections.
Thousands of students from various private colleges in Pollachi along with their counterparts from the government arts college marched towards the Pollachi municipal office, squatted on the road and demanded officials to hang the offenders. Efforts by police to pacify the students turned futile. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 students of the Udumalpet Arts College in Tirupur district, boycotted their classes on Wednesday, and staged a protest demanding a fair probe in the case.
While the case was handed over to the CB-CID police on Wednesday, following orders from DGP T.K. Rajendran, the Coimbatore district SP Pandiyarajan, handed over the case files to CB-CID IG Sridhar, who had come down to Coimbatore.
Sridhar told the press that a fair investigation would be conducted by the CB-CID police. A special team comprising of a DSP and five inspectors would investigate the case in a conspectus manner, bearing in mind the seriousness of the case, which will be led by woman SP Nisha. The offenders will be taken into their custody soon. Discussions are yet to start with the judicial and cyber-crime experts. The mobile phones of the offenders have been sent to the forensic department, and we are awaiting the reports, he said.
Based on the reports, the offenders and those who abetted the crime, would come to light and will be taken to custody and investigated. In case, if the case is transferred to the CBI, we will hand over the files to them, added the IG.
However, IG Sridhar along with his special team started investigations at Pollachi immediately, after receiving the files from the district police on Wednesday.
Public vandalise bar belonging to accused
A Tasmac bar belonging to one of the alleged offender involved in the Pollachi sex case, was ransacked by public near Pollachi, on Wednesday.
Police sources said, ‘Bar Nagaraj’ is one of the alleged offenders and AIADMK functionary, who was recently removed from the party after his involvement in the sex case came to light. Nagaraj was arrested and released on bail.
Nagaraj had allegedly threatened and thrashed the brother of one of the victims who recently lodged a police complaint at the Pollachi east police station, alleging sexual torture by Thirunavukarasu and his associates.
Following the release of Nagaraj on bail, members of the Opposition party DMK and those in their alliance, staged protests. Meanwhile, hundreds of irate people from the public, on Wednesday entered the bar owned by Nagaraj, located on the Valparai - Pollachi road near Suleshwarampatti bus stop, and ransacked it, damaging tables, chairs, tube lights and liquor bottles.
A few customers present in the bar ran away in panic. The violent public raised slogans demanding cancellation of Nagaraj’s bail, and also sought his arrest immediately. On an alert from local residents, police rushed to the spot and pacified the protesters.
In another development, a group of over 100 lawyers boycotted the court and staged a protest in front of the Coimbatore court complex on Wednesday, demanding an enquiry commission led by a woman High Court judge to probe the case.
