Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has accorded consent to the transfer of the Pollachi sexual assault and blackmail case to the CBI.
On Wednesday, the State government issued an order, invoking Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 (Consent of State to exercise of powers and jurisdiction). The order, issued through the State Home Department, permitted the extension of powers and jurisdiction to members of the Delhi Special Police Establishment in the whole of T.N.
The CBI will investigate the two cases which were originally registered at the Pollachi East Police Station, Coimbatore district, bearing the crime numbers of 59 and 60/2019.
The development follows a proposal sent by Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran to the State government. Earlier on Tuesday, the Crime Branch-CID was entrusted with investigation of the cases.
The DGP wanted the CBI to handle the cases, as the nature of crime “is extremely serious,” demanding “specialised attention” and requiring “more laborious and dedicated investigation with technical expertise.” The police chief, according to the GO, pointed out that the investigation “involves technical issues including analysis of Facebook data, I.P. logs/addresses and internet usage logs, communication with Facebook service providers and other internet service providing places in various countries.”
Giving an account of the genesis of the sexual assault episodes, the order, quoting the DGP’s letter to the government, stated that on February 24, a college girl submitted a complaint that she was both “physically and sexually harassed” and robbed of her one sovereign gold chain, worth ₹20,000, by a group of men inside a car. Subsequently, the case was registered at the police station against four persons.
While three persons - Sabarirajan, Sathish and Vasanthakumar - were arrested the next day, the police picked up the fourth person, Thirunavukkarasu, on March 5. All the four are now in judicial custody.
On February 26, the girl’s brother handed over a complaint to the police station that he had been assaulted with a threat to his life by four persons - Senthil, Babu, Mani alias Manivannan and Vasanthakumar (who is different from the one arrested in the other case). Senthil, Babu and Vasanthakumar were arrested and released on bail while Nagaraj alias Muthusamy, was arrested on February 27 and remanded to judicial custody, the order added.
