A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court urging the court to monitor the investigation to be conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Pollachi sexual abuse cases in which many young women were suspected to have been subjected to sexual abuse.
The PIL petition is expected to be listed before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani and Justice M. Duraiswamy on Monday. Advocte B. Pugalendhi, also the Director of Prisoners’ Right Forum, a registered public trust, had filed the petition through his counsel M. Radhakrishnan.
Referring to a Government Order passed on Wednesday for transferring the investigation in the sexual abuse cases from the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department to the CBI, the petitioner said such transfer had been ordered because of a recommendation made by the Director General of Police.
In his recommendation, the DGP had stated that the probe may be handed over to the CBI since it involved technical issues including analysis of Facebook data, Internet Protocol logs and internet usage logs apart from the need to liaise with the internet service providers in various countries to obtain the details.
“Thus, according to the DGP, the nature of crime was extremely serious demanding specialised attention and more laborious and dedicated investigation with technical expertise,” the petitioner said and pointed out that the National Commission for Women as well as the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women too had taken cognisance of the issue.
Further stating that the offence of sexually abusing gullible women and circulating those videos on the social media was worse than rape, the petitioner insisted that the entire investigation into the issue should be monitored by the court in order to inspire the confidence of the people among whom it had caused a great outrage.