Chennai: Since Monday morning, Tamil Nadu has been coming to terms with the awful facts of the Pollachi extortion racket – in which young women were allegedly lured to secluded spots and molested, filmed in the process, and later blackmailed for money.

Information about the racket has been circulating for a few weeks, and following a complaint by a college student, police have arrested four men. The student accused the men of sexually assaulting her in a car, taking videos of the assault and threatening to share them if they were not paid.

According to her police complaint, the gang threatened to share the video online if she refused their demands of sexual favours and money. She confided in her parents on February 24, after which the family went to the police.

Soon after, the woman’s brother was assaulted, allegedly by friends of the accused, and threatened about lodging a complaint. On February 27, the police arrested three of the accused. Thirunavukkarasu, allegedly the leader of the racket, was arrested on March 6.

According to informed sources, this network has harassed numerous women over a period of seven years. “One of the men would befriend a woman on social media and lure her to some secluded place, where he would be joined by other friends,” a police official told The Wire. “But only one woman has come forward with a complaint so far.”

Possible political connection

After widespread appeals on social media,  the four will be charged under the Goondas Act.

Coimbatore superintendent of police, R. Pandiyarajan, also spoke to journalists to rule out another matter of speculation on social media – that the racket flourished with political protection. Pandiyarajan himself was caught in a controversy a few years ago, after he slapped a woman protester who was protesting against TASMAC in Tiruppur.

V. Jayaraman, deputy speaker and the MLA from Pollachi, met the press to deny that either he or his family was connected to the racket, as had been alleged on social media. Accusing the DMK of spreading lies against him, Jayaraman claimed that he had first brought the issue to light and asked the police to act on it.

However, on the same day, the AIADMK expelled A. Nagaraj – a cadre who was indeed allegedly involved. He reportedly led the group that assaulted the complainant’s brother.

More than meets the eye

The state chapter of the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), which held a protest in Pollachi last week, says there is more to the case than meets the eye.

“We have come to know that one Karuppasamy, who is allegedly the main culprit, is still at large. The police show no interest in arresting him,” said P. Suganthi, secretary, AIDWA.

“There could be others too in the network,” she said. “The government may say otherwise, but we believe the gang could operate for the last seven or eight years only if it had some kind of political influence. This should be thoroughly investigated. It is surprising that the SP rules out any political involvement even before an enquiry.”

The women’s rights group has asked for a CB-CID investigation into the issue.

The district unit of AIDWA had also demanded that cases of suicide by young women in Pollachi since 2012 be re-examined. Speculation is rife that there were as many as 20 such suicide cases, but A. Radhika, AIDWA’s district president, does not want to make guesses.

“There have been many suicides that we have been hearing of for many years now,” she said. “We realise that at least a few of them could be connected to this issue.”

Political escalation

Meanwhile, the DMK has criticised the ruling party for shielding the “perpetrators of the horrific crime”.

DMK president M.K. Stalin declared that his party will continue to protest legally and in public forums. DMK MP Kanimozhi demanded that the government set up a special court “for the exclusive trial of these violent crimes against women”. She said the incident revealed how women in Tamil Nadu continued to be unsafe.

Kongu Eshwaran, leader of the Kongunaadu Desiya Munnetra Kazhagam (KMDK), part of the DMK front, says the network is larger than it appears: “This is unprecedented in terms of scale and depth, across the country. Hundreds of women have been affected, but the police are only trying to shield the culprits.”

The Pollachi case may be unprecedented in scale, but this is not the first network found to have been targeting women in the state. In Cuddalore, the police busted a racket of at least 16 men trafficking minors for sex. The men, including a church priest, were found guilty by a mahila court and given sentences of four to 30 years.

“Even that took enormous struggle,”AIDWA’s Suganthi told The Wire. “The police and the government think it is best to shield such crimes since it bring a bad name to the administration. If only they would spend those energies on getting the culprits punished, the state could be a much better place for women.”

Pointing to the Nirmala Devi case, Suganthi said no major arrests were made except for Nirmala Devi herself, despite alleged “high-profile involvement”.

The risks of complaining

The Pollachi case is a telling reminder of a larger social problem: the dangers to women of even making a complaint.

“The body-shaming, the concept of purity and honour, play a major role in dissuading women from lodging a complaint,” said Kavitha Gajendran, an activist in Chennai.

“The stigma is unimaginable,” she said. “I came across a post on social media in which a man says he will not marry someone from Pollachi. I was shocked. This is a deep-rooted malaise and requires a strong will to be removed.”

About the racket, she observed: “That they believed they could earn handsome money by using women this way is itself a sign that something is deeply flawed in our society.”

“Children have to be able to open up to their parents without fear of the stigma, or of being forced out of schools or colleges. We also need sex education in schools,” Gajendran said. “We have to change the narratives around victimisation,”

Kavitha Muralidharan is an independent journalist.

source: The Wire

CHENNAI, India—The seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case have already spent 28 years in jail and the campaign to release them cannot be dragged on any further.

The Supreme Court commuted their death sentences to life terms and said the state has the power to release them. The Tamil Nadu cabinet passed a resolution to release them, despite pressure from the Centre. Each legal hurdle has been crossed, yet their release continues to be uncertain. After nearly three decades, the justice the convicts deserve is lying on the governor’s desk, waiting for his signature.

Whenever their release is advocated, powerful voices vociferously protest, saying they are “murderers” undeserving of freedom or mercy. They forget that we live in a civilized world that believes in basic rights for convicts and in which the purpose of incarceration is reform of the prisoner.

Unopened files, fables and buried truths have made the case one of the country’s most mysterious. The national media hardly covers it. Forgetting is in people’s nature, and can only be countered with repeated reminders.

Since it started, the case has bred confusion. Questions over the identities of those behind the belt bomb that Dhanu activated, along with several others, remain unanswered. The Jain Commission’s 1997 report is proof enough of the complexity of the case. The report mentioned influential names and demanded that they be probed. But the CBI never took it up. Several important papers and documents got “lost”. The controversial godman Chandraswami died without being interrogated. A 1999 letter from former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh to the then-home minister L.K. Advani raising several doubts over the CBI inquiry is further proof of foul play.

In the letter, Singh demanded the multi-disciplinary monitoring committee should investigate angles beyond the 26 persons accused of the crime by the SIT.  He also raised questions about weapon procurement and the exchange of money.

Those concerns were buried in secret files and the CBI concluded its probe by scapegoating seven ordinary Tamils – Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Nalini, Ravichandran, Robert Paes and Jayakumar. Several Tamil and Dravidian movements protested against the injustice. Yet, the CBI did not investigate further.

Former investigating officer Thyagarajan filed an affidavit about the error while recording Perarivalan’s statement. Ragothaman, who led the investigation, has said in his book that the identity of the belt bomb’s maker was never ascertained.

The fact is that the investigation could never find the real culprits. While this continues to be an unforgivable blot on the Indian law enforcement and criminal justice system, the official silence that has accompanied the Supreme Court’s ruling that the state government is empowered to release the convicts is no less unpardonable.

Both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have said they have no objection to their release; they have ‘forgiven’ them. But it is now common to get the families of those killed along with Rajiv Gandhi to speak out against the release. Those who follow the case closely will realize that the police establishment is behind this.

Would the police, government, judiciary or civil society take note if the families of those killed in the Mumbai blasts demand Sanjay Dutt’s permanent incarceration? What would happen if every affected party starts making such demands?

The case is not discussed very widely beyond Tamil Nadu. The general opinion is that Rajiv Gandhi was killed by seven Tamils and hence they deserve an unending lesson. Every punishment has a time frame. Our system is not designed to see punishment as retributive – the aim is to give the person a chance at reform. A civilized society does not aim to harass endlessly.

The Supreme Court did not condemn the convicts to prison until death. In the case of Gopal Godse, convicted for his role in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and sentenced to life, the then Congress government released him in 1964. The Central government’s decision to not forgive the seven convicts in the Rajiv case naturally leads one to make inferences about the social background of Godse vis-à-vis the seven convicts.

The conditions for the premature release of life convicts are based on their conduct, not the nature of the crime. The seven convicts have maintained good conduct for 28 years. Perarivalan did not just finish many certificate courses in jail, he also helped educate other inmates and maintained the jail library. Under such circumstances, caste comparisons between Sanjay Dutt, who was released on account of good conduct in a case related to the killing of hundreds, and the seven convicts, becomes inevitable.

Could it be that as far as the release of convicts goes, good conduct is not important for our government? And that a person’s caste and social background play a greater role?

It has been six months since the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu cabinet. The governor’s approval remains the only hurdle. This approval is only a matter of bureaucratic ritual.

The governor perhaps considers himself more powerful than the cabinet. Former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa twice announced the release after the Supreme Court commuted their sentences. On both occasions, the Centre played spoilsport. It said the case was still in court. With the case concluded, it had no reason to procrastinate. However, it is using the governor to that end.

Since January 24, Perarivalan’s mother, Arputham Ammal, has been demanding that the governor break his silence and release the seven convicts. She is 71 years old. In the last one-and-a-half months, she has visited 22 districts. To mark six months of the Supreme Court judgment, she has announced a protest on March 9. Tamil Nadu could be on the boil – just as it was in 2011.

Perarivalan has brought the case to where it stands by waging a straightforward legal battle. The release of the seven convicts is the only option available to the powers-that-be. Human rights cannot continue to be crushed for political reasons. The AIADMK, in alliance with the BJP now, has no other recourse. Every moment of silence earns deeper resentment from the public.

In the name of justice, the convicts must be released. Tamil Nadu will not forgive the further continuation of this travesty.

(Translated from Tamil from Kavitha Muralidharan.)

(Article originally published by www.thewire.in )

source: Sikh24.com

A video released by the environmental activist a few days before he went missing from a train while travelling to Madurai from Chennai, S. Mugilan says the “shooting was well planned”.

Chennai: Two days after environmental activist S. Mugilan allegedly went missing from a train while travelling to Madurai from Chennai, the Madras high court has directed the Chennai police commissioner and the SPs of Villupuram and Kanchipuram to respond by February 22 to the habeas corpus petition filed by human rights defender and People’s Watch founder Henri Tiphagne.

Expressing his concern over the missing activist, Henri Tiphagne said, “The Villupuram police have denied arresting him in the court. In the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgment on Sterlite on Monday, we are really worried that Mugilan is in serious danger now.”

The Supreme Court had set aside the NGT order allowing Sterlilte to reopen on account of maintainability and had asked Sterlite to approach the high court.

Days before the judgment, on February 15, Mugilan had met journalists in Chennai to release a documentary – Koluthiyathu Yaar? Maraikkapatta Unmaigal (Who burnt it? The Hidden Truths).

In the video, he incriminates the Thoothukudi police of having orchestrated the shooting of anti-Sterlite protestors on May 22 last year. Putting together video clippings from various sources, Mugilan says the ‘shooting was well planned’ by the police and he accused IPS officers Shailesh Kumar Yadav and Kapil Kumar Saratkar of orchestrating it.

Hours later, after boarding a train to Madurai from Chennai, Mugilan went missing. His phone was reachable till 1.45 am on February 16, but since then, it has been switched off.

Mugilan has not reached Madurai as planned, and activists believe he may have been illegally detained by the police.

Meeting reporters at Thanjavur today, MDMK leader Vaiko expressed fear that Mugilan could havebeen  killed in an encounter or detained illegally. “The Tamil Nadu police and Sterlite administration should be held responsible” he said.

A picture showing a sniper shooting from atop a vehicle at the crowd on May 22, 2018. Credit: Twitter

Mugilan, an activist with the Tamil Nadu environmental protection movement, has been one of the most vociferous voices on environmental issues in the state. He has been in the forefront of various struggles, including against illegal sand quarrying, Koodankulam, for Cauvery river and Jallikattu. He has been facing over 15 cases including sedition.

Mugilan was arrested under 13 cases related to anti Koodankulam struggle in September 2017, shortly after he took part in a struggle against Sterlite in Thoothukudi. He was released in September 2018 after his lawyer obtained bails in all the cases.

Mugilan’s associates say there has been a precedent. “In March 2012, when he was struggling against Koodankulam plant, Mugilan he was illegally picked up by police for three days and then let off,” one said, asking not to be named.

Even at the press meet on February 15, Mugilan had voiced his fear that by releasing the video ‘evidence’, he was putting his life in danger.

In the 46-minute video, Mugilan seeks to establish that the ‘police’ had used a huge iron ladder to destroy two CCTV cameras prior to the shooting.

He says that Shailesh Kumar Yadav “had seen the iron ladder while inspecting, yet said nothing about it”. Mugilan also says the police had deliberately directed the protesting crowd towards the direction where there where now no CCTV cameras. Mugilan also seeks to establish that the protestors had not committed any arson, as had been claimed by administration as the reason for firing.

In the video, Mugilan also demands that the one-member commission to enquire into the shooting should file its interim report and that the autopsy reports of those killed in the shooting be released immediately. He has also demanded the arrests of the police officers concerned.

source: The Wire

Here’s one thing almost every serial follows: For some reason, heroines switch to sarees after marriage, even if they have to go to medical colleges to continue their education.

source: The News Minute