The Madras High Court, on Friday, January 24, constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the leak of a child sexual assault survivor’s audio statement that identifies her and her FIR details. The case pertains to a 10-year-old who was allegedly sexually assaulted in the Anna Nagar locality of Chennai. The audio clip of the survivor recording her statement to the Chennai police was leaked on social media platforms.
The Supreme Court had earlier appointed an SIT to probe the case. A bench of Justices R Subramaniam and C Kumarappan formed another SIT to look into the leak of the audio clips. The court also directed the SIT to submit a report after 15 days. The SIT comprises Pakerla Cephus Kalyan, Joint Commissioner of Police, West Zone; Shanthi Devi, Inspector, Cyber Crime Wing, West Zone; and Praveen Kumar, Inspector, Cyber Crime Wing, Avadi.
On August 29, 2024, the survivor was taken to the hospital after she suddenly fell sick, when the doctors found that she was sexually assaulted. The girl had first named her neighbour Satish (30), a water can supplier, as the accused. However, the survivor’s mother told TNM that the police “interrogated” her daughter after 10 pm on August 30 in the hospital where the child was receiving treatment, where she was allegedly threatened and made to change her statement. Following this, the child retracted her earlier statement and named a juvenile boy after the threat by the police. Anna Nagar AWPS inspector Raji was also accused of assaulting the child’s parents when they tried to report the crime at the police station on August 30.
In a grave transgression of legal procedures, the child’s audio statement that identifies her was leaked by the police in September 2024.
The Madras HC took suo motu cognisance of the issue and, on October 1, handed over the investigations to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However, the Supreme Court stayed this order and formed a SIT to probe the case.
The SIT, on January 8, 2025, arrested Anna Nagar AWPS inspector Raji and an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party worker named Sudhakar. Raji was charged with conducting a shoddy investigation and delaying the arrest of the accused, while the AIADMK man was arrested for allegedly shielding the accused.