Explained | Inside the Pollachi sexual assault case and the trial that followed

Explained | Inside the Pollachi sexual assault case and the trial that followed

The story so far: Six years ago, nine men from Pollachi, a picturesque rural town in Coimbatore where numerous movies have been filmed, were arrested for blackmailing, sexually assaulting, and videographing young girls and women between 2016 and 2018. The nine men, who have remained behind bars since their arrest, have been prosecuted for multiple offences, including criminal conspiracy, sexual harassment, rape, gang rape, and repeated rape on the same woman. On May 13, 2025, the Mahila Court in Coimbatore is set to deliver its judgment in the case.

On February 24, 2019, a college girl lodged a complaint with the Pollachi East police, alleging sexual abuse by four men in a moving car near Pollachi 12 days ago. The 19-year-old was the first survivor to speak up against the group of youngsters, who had allegedly been luring women and sexually assaulting them since 2016. The perpetrators filmed the sexual acts, which they later used for further sexual exploitation and extortion.

The police took up investigation and examined the mobile phones and laptops of the accused. What they saw in those devices was alarming. The officers had no doubt that the college girl’s complaint was just the tip of the iceberg. The gadgets contained numerous video clips of the survivors — from students to married women — whom they had sexually assaulted at various locations. Most of these chilling crimes had taken place at the farmhouse of one of the accused K. Thirunavukkararu, at Chinnappapalayam near Pollachi. Sensing the gravity of the case, on March 12, 2019, the State government directed the Crime Branch-CID to launch an investigation. Eventually, amid an outrage, the then Edappadi K. Palaniswami government transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the agency took over the probe on April 25, 2019.

The central gency arraigned N. Sabarirajan, 32, aka Rishwanth, K. Thirunavukkarasu, 34, M. Sathish, 33, T. Vasanthakumar, 30, R. Mani, aka Manivannan, 32, P. Babu, 33, T. Haronimus Paul, 32, K. Arulanantham, 39, and M. Arunkumar as accused in the case. It found that Sabarirajan was the key perpetrator, who lured the girls and women, including the complainant. The first act of violation, as per the complainant, took place on February 12, 2019, in a car on Dharapuram Road. They also filmed the act, robbed her of a gold chain, and left her in a deserted place. The girl informed her family only after the accused demanded sexual favours from her, by threatening to leak the video.

Numerous videos of sexual assault were found on the laptop of Sabarirajan and the mobile phone of Thirunavukkarasu. Using these, the police and the CBI identified the other accused and survivors.

The case also stirred up a political controversy as Arulanantham had been the AIADMK Pollachi town students’ wing secretary. He was expelled from the party a day after his arrest. Another youth, ‘Bar’ Nagaraj, who was involved in a case related to the assault on the brother of the college student, was a local secretary of Amma Peravai, an AIADMK-affiliated youth organisation. The Opposition parties had even sought to link a local AIADMK bigwig in the case.

Investigations revealed the accused targeted young girls and women from middle class and lower socio-economic backgrounds. Though the accused are suspected to have sexually assaulted and exploited numerous women, only eight of them testified against them. The investigation faced a backlash when the then Coimbatore District Superintendent of Police R. Pandiarajan revealed the name of the complainant during a media briefing. It is believed some survivors chose to stay away from the investigation fearing their identities would be made public.