DHARMAPURI: As many as 215 accused, including staff of Forest,Police and Revenue Departments, in the Vachathi case are sitting fingers crossed as the Special Court Judge cum Dharmapuri Principal District and Sessions Judge (PDJ) S Kumaraguru will be delivering the judgment in the case on Thursday (September 29).Totally 269 were accused. During the trial in the last 19 years 54 of them died.It may be recalled that 18 women (named Jaya, Selvi, Chitra, Gandhi, Abarakka, Pappathi, Gandhi, Marikkannu, Latchumayi, Kamsala, Muthuvedi, Poongodi, Mallika, Suguna, Pappathi, Muthuvedi, Thenmozhi and Palaniyammal) of Vachathi, a tribal hamlet, were raped during a raid by forest officials accompanied by over 100 police personnel and six revenue department staff, in the aftermath of an alleged attack on some forest guards who had gone to seize hidden sandalwood from the village in Harur taluk on June 20, 1992.Following repeated petitions by Tamil Nadu Tribal People Association president P Shanmugam on behalf of the victims, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe. The investigating agency arrested several officials of Forest, Police and Revenue Departments. Out of 269 accused, 156 were forest personnel, including five IFS officers, 107 police personnel, including a DSP, and six revenue officials, including a Tahsildar. When the case came up for hearing on Monday, the day on which the judgment was expected to be delivered, three accused Angamuthu (A18), Rajanandham (A60) and Ramadas (A98) did not turn up. The PDJ put off the judgment to Thursday and ordered to serve warrant against them. Interestingly, all the three appeared before the PDJ on Tuesday and the warrant was recalled.Police expect that the victims and villagers of Vahcathi might arrive in large numbers to the court to know the verdict on Thursday.
Comments
0 comment