More women have raised complaints before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the accused in the Pollachi sexual assault case.
The CBI informed the Mahila Court, Coimbatore, in July that eight women victims have given statements against the accused, said sources.
The agency made the submission before the court to oppose the bail application submitted by K. Arulanantham (34), a former functionary of AIADMK’s student wing at Pollachi. The court dismissed his bail plea.
The AIADMK had expelled Arulanantham from the party following his arrest along with two others namely P. Babu alias ‘Bike’ Babu (27) and Haronimus Paul (29), all hailing from Pollachi, on January 5 this year based on statements given by three women.
As of January 25, five women had given statements against the accused. Three more women turned up against the accused after January as per the recent submission of the investigating agency.
On August 11, the High Court rejected the bail of Arulanantham and directed the CBI to arrest all the persons involved in the case. It also directed the Mahila Court, Coimbatore, to begin the trial in the first week of September, conduct it on a day-to-day basis and complete in six months.
The agency arrested M. Arunkumar of Kittasurampalayam near Pollachi on August 13 and named the ninth accused in the case. Arunkumar was the business partner of one of the five persons who were arrested first in the case in 2019, sources said.
He was arrested based on the statements given by one of the survivors who recently turned up before the CBI against the group of men.
N. Rishwanth (26) alias Sabarirajan, K. Thirunavukkarasu (28), N. Sathish (30), T. Vasanthakumar (25) and R. Manivannan (31) alias Mani are the five other accused who were first arrested by the State police in the case based on a complaint lodged by a 19-year-old college student from Pollachi in February 2019. The CBI took over the investigation in April 2019 and filed a chargesheet against the first five accused in May 2019.
