TN lawyer held for releasing fake audio claiming sexual assault of women in Perambalur

A week after an advocate from Perambalur alleged that a 'Pollachi-like' extortion network was underfoot in the district, police have remanded him for spreading false information with intent to create public mischief and under the Atrocities against SC/ST Act. The lawyer P Arul was detained after investigating officials found that an audio that he released, allegedly of a female victim, was fabricated.

In a petition dated April 21, Arul had stated that a group of men, including an important leader in the district from the ruling party and a man pretending to be a journalist were sexually abusing, video-recording and blackmailing over 20 women in the town. He claimed that they befriended unsuspecting housewives and college girls, called them to a private location, sexually assaulted them and took videos of the assault. These videos were then, according to him, used to threaten them for more sexual favours or to extort money. When called in for questioning by the police in connection to this however, he failed to cooperate and submit audio and video evidences that he claimed to have. Arul had told TNM that he would approach the High Court with the case.

However, two days after this, on April 25, he released an audio of a woman who claimed she had gone to a hotel in the behest of the alleged assaulters and encountered 'vulgar behaviour'. The woman then says that the entire incident was videographed and she was blackmailed. The audio however, instead of adding strength to the case, ended up allegedly unravelling the advocate's lie.

"As soon as we got hold of the audio, we realised that it sounded extremely rehearsed and fake," says an investigating officer in the case. "We tracked down the woman using call records and found that she was actually from another district. She was facing domestic issues and called Advocate Arul after she saw him on TV, believing him to be an activist for women's rights. Once we spoke to her she confessed that she was lying and was taught to narrate the story by the advocate and his personal assistant," the officer adds.

 The police had also scanned through the CCTV footage of the hotel where the women were allegedly being videographed and did not find anything amiss. Meanwhile, another group of advocates had filed a complaint against Arul for alleging that Perambalur MLA R Thamizhselvan who belonged to the Scheduled Caste was involved in this alleged crime.

"We have booked him for public mischief and under the SC/ST act. We are still trying to understand what his motive is - cheap publicity or political," says the investigating officer. "He belongs to the Naam Tamilar party, but nobody from the political outfit has raised any objections to his arrest. The woman who gave the fake narrative and his personal assistant who tutored her have now become witnesses in the case. We are protecting both their identities. The woman has even confessed to what happened to the Magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC. He has used a vulnerable woman to propagate his lie," adds the officer.

Arul had said that he became aware of the allegations after the relatives of some of the allegedly affected women confided in him. When the complaint was initially filed, the Perambalur police had registered a case against unknown persons on Sunday, under IPC sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) 506 (i) (criminal intimidation) and under section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.