All the nine accused arraigned in the Pollachi sexual assault case of 2019 were produced before the Mahila Court in Coimbatore on Friday in the wake of additional material objects submitted by the Central Investigation Bureau (CBI) last month.
The accused— N. Rishwanth alias Sabarirajan (28); K. Thirunavukkarasu (30); N. Sathish (32); T. Vasanthakumar (27); R. Manivannan alias Mani (33); K. Arulanantham(36); P. Babu alias ‘Bike’ Babu (29); Haronimus Paul (31), and M. Arunkumar(31)— were brought to the court from Salem Central Prison.
They were produced before Judge R. Nandhinidevi in a court hall, which was exclusively set up for the trial of the case that began on February 24 last year.
Sources privy to the development said the CBI had submitted some documents, including diaries, and around 30 compact disks (CD) that had been recovered from Thirunavukkarasu’s farm house at Makkinampatti near Pollachi, where the accused allegedly subjected several women to sexual assault. The court marked these documents and CDs as material objects in the case.
The accused were produced before the court on Friday and copies of the documents were given to them. Since the contents of the CDs could not be shared, the accused were allowed to watch them. Sources added that some of the videos in the CDs had the accused in them.
The court posted to hear the case next on March 1 when four witnesses will be examined with regard to these additional material objects. The accused were taken back to Salem prison after the hearing. Surendra Mohan, Special Public Prosecutor for the case, appeared for the CBI.
The case pertains to the alleged sexual assault of several women by the accused, who also photographed the acts and blackmailed them for sexual gratification and money. So far, eight victims gave evidence against the accused persons in the trial.
