Dalit woman in Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu have been continuously raped by eight individuals including two DMK members and three minor school students. The victim was reportedly a Christian Dalit woman of 22-year-old working in a garment factory who was raped for around eight months.
The perpetrators sexually assaulted, filmed and threatened to leak the intimate videos and pictures of the survivor. The accused had been arrested by the police for sexually abusing and blackmailing the 22-year-old Dalit Woman for a long period of duration.
The Story of the Victim
As per the News Minute report, via social media, Hariharan aka Saravanan, 27-year-old and the woman had become friends. Following that Hariharan told the girl that he loved her and consequently they had entered into a physical relation.
Besides, the accused, Hariharan took her to a medical warehouse on 20th August, 2022 and recorded their intimate videos. He then repeatedly assaulted her sexually and recorded that in his mobile phone.
According to various news agencies, the police said that one day Hariharan friends watched the video Praveen, Junaid Ahmed and four other school students between the age of 15 and 18. They got the details of the girl from the first accused Hariharan.
Later, his friends, the seven accused contacted her and keeping the video on leverage, blackmailed to upload the video on social media and raped her multiple times from August 2021 to March 2022.After which the survivor reached out to her well-wisher, Madasami, a 37-year-old to help her against the seven accused.
But Madasami took advantage of her situation and secured the video from her phone. He too later on extorted her and started sexual assaults on her. He threatened her to show the video to her mother and raped her perpetually.
Following the chain of events, the victim couldn’t withstand the repeated tortures and assaults. She reported the incidents via calling the women’s helpline 181 and Virudhunagar rural police took over the case. The police arrested all the eight accused.
A case has been filed against the DMK functionaries Hariharan and Junaid. According to The News Minute article, On March 20, 2022, an FIR was lodged against all the accused Hariharan, Madasami (37), Praveen(22), Junaid Ahmed(27), one 18-year-old, two 17-year-olds and one 15-year-old under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376(2)(n) (rape), 354(c) (voyeurism), 354(D) (stalking), read with 66(e) (violation of privacy) of Information Technology (IT) Act and 3(1)(w)(1) (punishment for offences atrocities), 3(2)(v) (punishment for offences atrocities) of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) (SC/ST(POA)) Act.
A case has been registered against the four minor school-going students and concurrently, they were sent to Juvenile detention center. Meanwhile, the investigation is going on and the police are also trying to find if these arrested accused are involved in any other similar crimes.
DMK MP Kanimozhi reacted to the incident and tweeted “It is consolidating that the accused have been arrested on the case of sexual assault of 22-year-old women in Virudhunagar district. Whomever the accused is, they must be given strict punishments.” But in her tweet did not mention anything about the DMK functionaries.
The incident replicates the unforgettable 2019 Pollachi rape case which is under CBI probe. In Pollachi case many young women were raped by a gang that would befriend the girls in social media and lure them to an isolated place where they would sexually assault them and record the incident. The girls later were blackmailed to release the video in social media by the gang for money or sexual favours.
Published By : VATSAL KOTHA
Edited By : KRITIKA KASHYAP
