The Central Bureau of Investigation has on Wednesday brought the Pollachi Sexual Assault case into the limelight after it had arrested three more accused in connection to the case, which had become a crucial development as it has come when the probe was surfaced with the accusations of relaxing the investigation in favor of a political party. 

The CBI had arrested three more persons on Wednesday and they have been identified as Arulanatham (34), Heron Paul (29), and Babu (30). Of these three, Arulanatham is the Pollachi town secretary of the ADMK student wing, which had drawn major flak towards the ruling party from the opposition. According to reports, the three arrested accused belong to the same gang of five other accused who had already been arrested in the case. 

In 2019, four people - Sathish, Sabarirajan, Vasanthkumar, and Thirunavukkarasu were initially arrested and booked by the police. When the case came to light, it had shocked the entire nation as these arrested men were accused of assaulting hundreds of women and extorted money from the affected women. 

The four were booked under sections 354A- sexual harassment, 354B- assault or use of criminal force against woman, and 394 - robbery of the IPC and section 66E of the IT Act and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women Act. Later, the police had arrested the fifth accused R Manivannan in connection with the case. Manivannan has confessed to raping a few women along with the four accused. He was arrested after he surrendered before the magistrate court in Coimbatore in March 2019. 

However, the police investigation didn't progress further which stirred protests across Tamil Nadu and the state government was demanded to hand over the case to the CBI. Following the protests, the Tamil Nadu government had transferred the case to the CBI and the Central agency started its probe into the case on April 28, 2019, and the first charge sheet in the case was filed in May 2020. Nearly eight months after filing the charge sheet, the CBI had now arrested three more people including an ADMK leader in connection with the case. 

Apart from the ADMK leader, the rest of the seven accused were under the age of 30. During the initial investigation, the police had included the name of Bar Nagaraj in connection with the case. Nagaraj was an ADMK functionary and after he was mentioned in the case, he was expelled from the party. However, the CBI had asserted to the court last year that the case against Nagaraj was dropped due to the lack of evidence. 

With the latest arrest, the state had witnessed the involvement of the ADMK leader, which sparked fresh trouble for the ruling party. Following the arrest, DMK leader Kanimozhi took to Twitter and said, "DMK had pressed that the ADMK leaders were involved in the Pollachi sexual assault case. The arrest of the ADMK leader proved that DMK was right". She further asked whether these arrests would have happened if the probe was carried out by the ADMK government. 

According to reports, the case relates to a complaint filed by a 19-year-old woman in 2019. In her complaint, she said that the four men had forcibly removed her clothes in a car and they video-graphed the act. The complaint had shocked the state and it had later revealed the connection of larger sexual assault and extortion racket in February 2019. The police said that over 50 women may have been faced the assault committed by a group of men in a close network. The Pollachi police department had booked a case against the four men on February 24, 2019, based on the woman's complaint, and nearly after two years, the case has now led to the arrest of three more accused. 

மேலும் இரு அதிமுகவினரையும், சிபிஐ இவ்வழக்கில் கைது செய்துள்ளது உறுதி செய்துள்ளது.

எடப்பாடி அரசிடம் இவ்வழக்கு விசாரணை தொடர்ந்திருந்தால் இந்த கைதுகள் நடந்திருக்குமா ?(2/2).

— Kanimozhi (கனிமொழி) (@KanimozhiDMK) January 6, 2021