A special court on Friday reserved its order in the case against 17 accused who were charged with sexual assault on a minor girl in the city.
The all-women police, Ayanavaram, in July 2018, had arrested 17 persons, mostly services staff of an apartment complex, for alleged aggravated sexual assault on the girl in the gated community in Ayanavaram, for a period of nearly seven months beginning January last year.
The victim, a child with a hearing impairment, was a resident of an apartment in Ayanavaram and was subjected to sexual assault by the lift-man Ravikumar and his two accomplices. Other staff in the apartment complex also raped her, and threatened her with death if she informed her parents about it.
The offenders were booked under Sections 307 (Attempt to murder), 506(ii)(Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and section 5 (Aggravated Penetrative Sexual Assault) 6 (Punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault), 9 (Aggravated sexual assault), 10 (Punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault) and 12 (Sexual harassment) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
Ravikumar, 56, Suresh, 32, Rajasekar, 40, Erald Bross, 58, B.J. Sugumaran, 65, and 12 others were arrested by the police and were lodged in Central Prison, Puzhal. Though their detention under the Goondas Act was quashed, they did not come out from prison.
The accused were tried before R.N. Manjula, Special Judge of the Mahila Court which also handles POCSO cases.
Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh said, “The prosecution side examined 36 witnesses and the defence side cross examined them. Over 120 documents were marked on prosecution side. At the end of two-week long arguments, the court reserved its order on Friday evening and has adjourned for the pronouncement of a judgement in the case.”
