The Mahila Court, Coimbatore, on Thursday completed framing of charges against all the accused in the Pollachi sexual assault case.
All the nine accused in the case namely, N. Rishwanth alias Sabarirajan, 26, K. Thirunavukkarasu, 28, N. Sathish, 30, T. Vasanthakumar, 25, R. Manivannan alias Mani, 31, K. Arulanantham, 34, P. Babu alias ‘Bike’ Babu, 27, Haronimus Paul, 29, and M. Arunkumar, 29, were produced before Sessions Judge R. Nandhinidevi. The judge read out the charges against the accused in the in-camera session.
Court sources said the charges were framed against the accused for offences under Sections 354 A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), 354 B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 392 (punishment for robbery) and 376 (punishment for rape) of the IPC; Section 66 E (punishment for violation of privacy) of the Information Technology Act; and Section 4 (penalty for harassment of women) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman (TNPHW) Act.
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The accused were provided copies of the chargesheet and the statements of the survivors (given to the police and the magistrate) in the previous sessions.
Copies of these statements, which the eight survivors had given to the police and the magistrate, were provided to the nine accused on Wednesday, said court sources. The court posted to hear the case next on November 25.