CHENNAI: The first bench of the Madras High Court has ordered notice to the State government and the CBI on a PIL plea from an advocate to monitor the CBI probe into the Pollachi sexual abuse case by the High Court itself.
Chief Justice V K Tahilramani and Justice M Duraiswamy on Tuesday ordered the notice, returnable by April 10, on the PIL from P Pugalenthi. According to petitioner, the complainant in one of the cases is a girl student who was allegedly ‘sexually harassed’ by a group in a car. The other complaint is related to the alleged assault of the brother of a victim, to silence others.
These cases, originally probed by the local police, were transferred to the CB-CID. Later, on March 12, the DGP issued a communication to the government, recommending transfer of the investigation to the CBI. In view of the recommendation, the government transferred the case to the CBI by a GO dated March 13 last. “It is unfortunate that the State ignored the fundamentals of justice and disclosed the name of the victim of sexual assault thereby preventing other victims from lodging such complaints with police,” Pugalenthi said.
Noting that since the offence committed was worse than rape, the petitioner wanted the court to monitor the CBI probe.