Nearly seventy five days since they went absconding after they were identified by the victims of a child prostitution racket, the Crime Branch CID Police now on Tuesday distributed the photographs of the six policemen to the media and sought information from the public on the whereabouts of the accused.
Sharing photographs of the dismissed police personnel, CB CID Superintendent S. Venkatasamy said, “We have set several deadlines for their surrender and still their whereabouts are not known. So, we are issuing the photographs of the dismissed police personnel who are wanted in the case.”
He said the public may provide information about the dismissed personnel who are absconding and the details of those who come forward to pass on the information will be kept confidential.
Following a complaint to the Child Helpline, Grand Baazar Police Station investigated the case. CB CID was entrusted with further probe in the case. Subsequently, four girl children were rescued from a house and eight persons including prime accused Arul Mary were arrested. Based on call records found in prime accused, 12 police personnel were suspended for their alleged involvement in the racket.
As per a direction of Madras High Court, an identification parade was conducted with police personnel. During the identification parade on December 18 last year, the girls identified eight police personnel and a retired sub-inspector as accused. Since then, nine persons have been absconding. Following dismissal of their bail pleas recently, the CB CID expedited the search once again.
Dismissed sub-inspector V. Balakrishnan and constables- M Selvakumar and G Sankar surrendered before the CB-CID on February 28. Now CB CID is on the look out for six absconding persons.
The absconding accused are V. Yuvaraj, T. Sundar, A. Anusha Basha, who were Inspectors of Police, B.Kumaravel, G. Penderinathan who were constables and a retired Sub-Inspector V Rajaram.
Ruling out the possibility of filing an absconding charge sheet, Mr. Venkatasamy said we don’t want to create an impression that police was trying to help them. The SP said if the dismissed persons want to prove their innocence, then they should appear before the court and prove it, instead of hiding.
He also added there was no concrete evidence to prove the alleged involvement of any politician in the case.