The nine accused in the Pollachi sexual assault case were on Tuesday given copies of the supplementary charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before the Mahila Court.
All the nine accused in the case — N. Rishwanth, 26, alias Sabarirajan; K. Thirunavukkarasu, 28; N. Sathish, 30; T. Vasanthakumar, 25; R. Manivannan ,31, alias Mani; K. Arulanantham, 34; P. Babu alias ‘Bike’ Babu, 27; Haronimus Paul, 29, and M. Arunkumar, 29, were produced before the court where copies of the charge sheet were served on them.
Sources said the supplementary charge sheet ran into nearly 1,000 pages. It has listed eight victims, 64 witnesses and 71 documents.
This is the first time that all the nine accused have been produced before the trial court. It has posted the next hearing to September 29.
The case relates to the alleged sexual assault of several women by a group of men from Pollachi.
The accused allegedly photographed the crime and blackmailed the women for sexual gratification and money.
Student’s complaint
The local police registered a case based on a complaint lodged by a 19-year-old college student from Pollachi in February 2019, which was later handed over to the CB-CID.
The CBI took over the investigation in April 2019, and filed the first charge sheet against Rishwanth, Thirunavukkarasu, Sathish, Vasanthakumar and Manivannan after a month.
The Madras High Court had on August 11th directed the Mahila Court, Coimbatore, to begin the trial in September and conduct it on a day-to-day basis to complete it in six months.
