Scandal that broke Pollachi’s peace — and innocence

POLLACHI (COIMBATORE): Pollachi is a small town, some 45 km south of Coimbatore. It’s a place where nothing much happens. So when its residents learnt of a group of men that had been systematically targeting women, ensnaring them, sexually abusing them and then blackmailing them into silence, they were stunned. “In Pollachi?” That was what many asked.
That could perhaps be one of the reasons why the women so easily trusted the predators.



It began with a call that came on February 12 to Lakshmi from Sabarirajan. A month ago, he had sent a WhatsApp text to the 19-year old girl, telling her he was her senior in college. They struck up a friendship. On the fateful day, he asked her out. She had no idea of the horror that awaited her. Or Pollachi.

Lakshmi (name changed) went to Makkinampatti, where Sabarirajan was waiting in a car. After she got in, she realized there were three other men inside. Soon, Sabarirajan tried to remove her clothes. As she resisted, Lakshmi was shocked to see one of them shooting a video.

She went home in tears and told her brother about the attack. He and some of his friends tracked Sabarirajan and the others, including a financier named K Thirunavukkarasu, and assaulted them. A week later, Lakshmi filed an FIR. That was when the matter blew up.


Students form a human chain to protest the Pollachi incident

By then, Thirunavukkarasu had gone underground, though police arrested Sabarirajan, his friends T Vasanth Kumar and N Sathish on February 25. Thirunavukkarasu was caught on March 5. In the phones of the men, police claimed they found four video clips showing women being assaulted, including one of a woman being brutally whipped for refusing to take off her leggings.

Later, police nabbed A Nagaraj, a friend of Thirunavukkarasu, who with three other men allegedly beat up Lakshmi’s brother afterwards. Nagaraj was a member of the AIADMK.



“The gang used to look out for college students, working women or housewives who they knew socially, through friends or acquaintances,” an officer said. The accused are affluent by Pollachi standards: Thirunavukkarasu is an MBA graduate who runs a finance firm; Sathish, 29, owns a garment store and Sabarirajan, 25, is an engineering graduate.

“A woman who called us said Sabarirajan had stalked her for months and proposed to marry her. She eventually agreed. He took her to a farm house where he raped her. The remaining three took videos and then raped her,” said a police officer. The survivor’s kin told TOI they were reluctant to file a complaint fearing the videos might be leaked. Almost all the women, said police, were from Pollachi.

“In some cases they used fake IDs to lure women they didn’t know,” said an officer who interrogated the accused. “Subsequently, marriage would be proposed and meeting set up, mostly at the farm house of Thirunavukkarasu at Chinnappampalayam, 20 km from Pollachi. Others would join in, raping the woman and making videos. Later, they would blackmail her for money or sexual favours.”




None of this has made its way into the FIR. Even Lakshmi’s FIR is only about molestation and physical assault. Despite the four confirmed video clips of sexual assault, no complaints have been filed by survivors.



As news of the crime spread in Pollachi, the town erupted. Other women called police to say they too had been sexually abused. Soon reports emerged that police had found hundreds of video clips of rape and assaults, that a large network of sexual predators was involved. Some put the number of victims at “more than 60”.

Police denied this claim. “Our investigations show only these four men were involved. We found four video clips, not hundreds,” said Coimbatore superintendent of police R Pandirarajan.

On March 13, the Tamil Nadu department of home did something that damaged the case irreparably. It issued an order which revealed Lakshmi’s actual name and her college.

Lakshmi has since shut herself up at home and refused to meet anyone. “My request is to leave us alone,” said her brother when TOI called him. The family has been bombarded with attention by the media and Pollachi’s residents.

Cops said revealing Lakshmi’s name had made it difficult for others to muster the courage to record FIRs. The case has now been given to the CBCID + . There have been political repercussions too, with AIADMK expelling Nagaraj + amid allegations of patronage to the accused men.

Pollachi itself looks like it has changed forever. It’s as if an evil force has left its soul bruised. If there’s one thing that the town hopes for, it is that the survivors speak up some day.