Coimbatore: The CBI has begun probe into the Pollachi sex scam that rocked Tamil Nadu in the last couple of months and ignited the Opposition tirade against the AIADMK Government in the recent election campaign.
The agency has registered two FIRs on Friday, following the request from the state government on March 12 as the investigation required technical analysis of social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook. The CBI FIRs have integrated the FIRs already filed by the state crime branch CID which had earlier taken over the probe from the Coimbatore police following the wide allegations of mishandling of the case by the district police, particularly the SP.
The case relates to alleged sexual harassment of a woman in Pollachi by a group of men who had shot videos of her and blackmailed her for money and sexual favours. This constituted the CBI's first FIR while the second related to the alleged assault of the victim's brother by the gang.
Preliminary probe by the state police and the explosive social media exposure had revealed that the gang had allegedly exploited a number of women after befriending them through FB and that some political heavyweights too were involved. The victims did not report to the police out of fear of social stigma; a few of them had not even taken their families into confidence.
The sex scam, believed to be on for several years, was finally exposed when one of the victims gathered courage to report to her family and a police complaint was lodged on February 24. The FIR alleged that a gang of four men had on February 12 allegedly tried to strip the victim inside a car in motion near Pollachi and shot a video of it for blackmailing her.
The case assumed political colour when a local functionary of the ruling AIADMK was taken into custody for allegedly attacking the victim's brother for reporting to the police. Though the man was expelled from the AIADMK, the issue quickly snowballed into a major embarrassment for the ruling party with the DMK and other opposition parties targeting it during the recent election campaign.
Reports in a section of the media alleging that the scam had consumed several women over a long period of time when the gang and its political clients made merry, caused an outrage across the state and triggered protest demonstrations in Coimbatore district and elsewhere in the state.
