Fearing public outrage against the four accused in the minor girl rape case, the police, prison and judiciary had the judicial custody of the accused extended through video conference facility.
The police arrested Sulur Karuppasamy, Ragam Karuppasamy of Ramanathapuram, Gopalakrishnan and Balasundaram and a 17-year-old juvenile offender on February 16 in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
The incident triggered public protest and >houses of the accused were attacked .
Under such circumstances, the police, anticipating violence against the accused if they were brought to the court, availed themselves of the video conference facility.
Charge-sheets
The four accused were brought to the Central Prison office room and through video conference, they were produced before the Judicial Magistrate VI, who remanded them to judicial custody for 15 more days.
The police are also preparing charge-sheets listing nearly 30 witnesses, including the sons of one of the accused.
Man arrested
A 53-year-old man was arrested on the charge of posing as an EB official and attempting to extort money from a Tangedco official.
According to the police, Veerasamy, an engineer with the Tangedco, received a phone call and the caller, identifying himself as Saravanakumar, an official from EB Vigilance, accused Veerasamy of having money disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Stating that an inquiry was on and a case would be registered against him, the caller demanded Rs. 1 lakh from the engineer.
On suspicion, Veerasamy verified and found that there was no Saravanakumar in EB Vigilance. He along with his colleagues waited at the place where the caller asked him to come.
When Saravanakumar came to take the money, they nabbed him and handed him over to the police.
