Four accused in the case of sexual assault of a 22-year-old Dalit woman in Virudhunagar of Tamil Nadu have been detained under Goondas Act, following orders of the district collector J Meghanatha Reddy, on Thursday, April 14. One of them was an ex-DMK party functionary. The Goondas Act is a stringent act that provides for preventive detention of murder accused, immoral traffic offenders, sexual offenders and other such offenders to prevent their dangerous activities that could be detrimental to public order.
Eight persons, including four minors, were arrested in March 2022 for allegedly sexually assaulting a 22-year-old Dalit woman repeatedly over a period of seven months by threatening to leak private videos of the woman. The incident came to light after the survivor approached the women’s helpline and filed a police complaint on March 20.
The four juveniles in the case were granted conditional bail by the Juvenile Justice Board, on April 8. The other four accused - Hariharan alias Saravanan (27), Madaswamy (37), Praveen (22) and Junaith Ahmed (27) - currently lodged at the Madurai Central Jail have been detained under the Goondas Act, after the CB-CID (Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department) recommended the same. Junaith Ahmed was a local DMK party functionary, but was suspended after the issue came out.
According to the complaint, Hariharan had befriended the woman over social media, and the two became friends. He later got into a physical relationship with the woman, which was recorded by the former. The videos were allegedly watched by his friends, who got the woman’s details from him and contacted her and threatened to leak the video, and raped her multiple times between August 2021 and March 2022, according to the police. This includes three school-going students.
The woman had asked her neighbour Madaswamy to help her get out of the situation. The police, however, say that he too used the video to threaten and sexually assault her.
Based on the woman’s complaint, an FIR was registered under sections 376(2)(n) -rape, 354(c) - voyeurism, 354(D) - stalking of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), read with 66(e) - violation of privacy of Information Technology (IT) Act and 3(1)(w)(1) - punishment for offences atrocities, 3(2)(v) - punishment for offences atrocities of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities).
The case was then transferred to the CB-CID for investigation and the state Director General of Police was told by Chief Minister MK Stalin to monitor the investigation and ensure filing of the charge sheet within two months. “This case would be an example of instant justice and be a lesson to those who commit such crimes. Just wait and see how this government will ensure justice (to the victim)," he said in the Assembly. CB-CID superintendent Mutharasi has been named as the special officer in the case.