Twin horrors rock Tamil Nadu

Two women, two horrific crimes, one in the north and the other in the deep south of Tamil Nadu. Recent incidents of gang rape, over the last week and involving minors, has shocked and chilled the State to its bones. While the specifics might be different, the sheer ease with which women have been violated is a grim reminder of how such crimes can be committed easily. As the circumstances of the crimes come to light, more gory details are being revealed. The security agencies have a task at hand: to ensure that the awareness of the punishment, and thus deterrence, is well established, speedy investigation and trials and the accused are brought to book

For this 22-year-old woman in Virudhunagar, down south, fate has been very cruel. She had lost her father, and was under her mother’s care. The woman, who hails from a Scheduled Caste, had been shouldering the family’s burden, working at a private mill.

It was then that she developed friendship with M. Hariharan, who used to meet her at the bus stop where she would wait for the company vehicle to pick her up. While she enjoyed his company initially, she had no idea that this association would trigger the horror story that was about to toss her life about.

She continued to chat with him on social media, and at some point, friendship evolved into love. They had consensual sexual relations; however, unbeknown to her, he shot a video of their intimate moments on his mobile phone.

She only found out about the video when she urged him to marry her. He refused. When her family insisted on getting her married, she consented to a proposal, and he started harassing her. He reportedly forced her into sex, blackmailing her with the video and warning her that if she did not comply he would release the video online. Though she did comply repeatedly out of fear, he circulated the clip to his friends.

As the clip started moving, each of his friends started to threaten the poor girl that they would upload it on social media, if she refused to have sex with them.

As the events came to light, people were shocked to discover that the participants of this sordid drama included four schoolboys. “When a Plus-Two student was playing an online game with Hariharan’s mobile phone, he chanced upon the clip and he grew curious,” said a police officer privy to the investigation. He roped in some of his friends. As the investigation stands, even a Class IX student is involved in this scandal.

What started in August 2021 as a fallout of a love affair turned into sexual torture for her for nearly one year. When she realised that she had got into an ugly mess and decided that she could not tolerate the harassment anymore, she sought the help of one of her neighbours. Though she trusted him, she was yet to face one more betrayal.