CHENNAI: Madras High Court has directed the Superintendent of Police (SP) in Puducherry to conduct video-conferencing of some police personnel who had allegedly raped minor girls.
Each of the suspected uniformed police officer should remove his shirt and stand before the camera with bare-body during the video-conference so that the victim girls can identify the culprits, Justice PN Prakash has said. The judge was passing interim orders on a criminal original petition from one of the accused A Tamil Selvan, who allegedly rented out his premises to the other accused for staging the crime.
Test identification parades are carried out by police to test the memory and the identifying capability of a witness, who had seen the offender in a fleeting movement. In this case the delinquent police officers were in uniform and had sex with the victims thus spending considerable time with them. The only handicap is the victims do not know the names of the officers. Therefore it is necessary for the conduct of the test identification parade through video-conferencing in the presence of a woman magistrate, the judge said.
According to prosecution, two girls, aged 14 and 16, appeared before the Child Help Line of Puducherry in April this year seeking protection from sexual harassment and abuse. The children were exploited by three pimps who forced them to continue sexual relationship with several men by threatening them with the video clippings taken when they were in a compromising position after being drugged.
Following a complaint from CHL, CB CID police registered a case against the three pimps, three police personnel and other unknown persons. Puducherry Public Prosecutor P Murugesan submitted that till now eight police officers were placed under suspension. The judge also directed Murugesan to file a report on December 19.