The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed all the criminal appeals filed against the conviction pronounced in 2011 by the Dharmapuri Sessions Court in the Vachathi rape case, a case involving police brutality. The Court also directed the Tamil Nadu government to pay compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of the 18 gang-rape victims.
The High Court also directed the government to initiate appropriate action against the then Collector, Superintendent of Police and District Forest Officer for having failed to take action against the atrocities even after repeated complaints. The court also directed the government to provide employment and improve the livelihood of all victims.
Justice P. Velmurugan dismissed the petitions confirming the conviction and the rigorous imprisonment imposed on September 29, 2011, by then Dharmapuri principal sessions judge S. Kumaraguru. The convicts include senior forest officers, police and revenue officials.
In 1995, on instructions of the Madras High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took up the investigation of the Vachathi brutality case. The tribal village Vachathi in Dharmapuri district, on the foothills of the Western Ghats, popularly known as Veerappan forest, then came under the scanner of police and forest officers for alleged sandalwood smuggling. A total of 269 forest range officers, revenue and police officials went on searching for smuggled sandalwood and probe Veerappan links in the village.
The CBI probe accused 269 officers, including the then Principal Conservator of Forests M. Harikrishnan, Conservators of Forests P. Muthaiyan and L. Nathan and District Forest Officer S. Balaji for ransacking and brutally attacking and gangraping the women in the village. The CBI also did not spare police and revenue officials, including police inspector and constables, Tahsildars, Taluk Supply Officer, Zonal Deputy Tahsildar and Village Administrative Officer. All the 269 accused faced trial in the case at the Dharmapuri Sessions Court.
Hearing the case, the Court convicted 215 of 269 accused in the case, 54 died while the case was in pending trial stage. Following this, all the 215 preferred an appeal in the Madras High Court. Justice P. Velmurugan visited Vachathi on March 4 this year to hear the first-person account of the women victims. In February, while hearing the appeals preferred by 126 forest personnel, 84 police personnel and five revenue officials, Justice Velmurugan told the counsel representing the appellants as well as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had prosecuted the case in court orders, that he would be visiting Vachathi before delivering the final judgment in the case.
And now after a full-fledged trial, the Madras High Court had found them guilty, convicted and punished them upholding the sessions court order.
