Alleging that justice was denied to Athiyur Vijaya, a tribal girl allegedly gang raped by six Puducherry policemen at Athiyur in Villuppram district of Tamil Nadu, Federation for People’s Rights (FPR) and Scheduled Tribe Protection Movement (STPM) urged Tamil Nadu Government to move the Supreme Court against the acquittal of the accused by Madras High Court.
Addressing a press conference here, FPR Secretary G Sugumaran and STPM Secretary Prabha Kalvimani said they would go for an appeal in the Supreme Court by engaging an advocate for Vijaya.
They claimed investigations by several Human Rights Organisations proved Vijaya had been gang raped.
The acquittal was shocking, they said and added the judgment in the case would further lower the common man’s faith in the judiciary.
They said the Puducherry police personnel, who were after the culprits in a robbery case here, abducted Vijaya from the house of her relative and allegedly gang raped her on July 29, 1993.
Tindivanam Sub-Collector Jawhar then conducted an inquiry and found prima-facie evidence for the rape and asked the police to register an FIR.
Further inquiries were held and a report confirming the rape was submitted to the government on February seven, 1994, they added.
On August 31, 1994, the Tamil Nadu Government handed over the case to the CB-CID and provided an ex-gratia of Rs 25,000 to Vijaya, they said adding the proceedings of the case were conducted at the Villuppuram District Court which awarded life imprisonment to all the six police personnel on August 11, 2006.
The accused went in for an appeal in the Madras High Court which granted bail to them within three months and acquitted them after two years, they added.
UNI / 22.09.2008.
Masi the father of Athiyur Vijaya was rescued by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in a habeas corpus writ petition filed by professor S . Seshaiah of the SK UNIVERSITY’ Anantapuramu’ AP. This writ petition was filed by Advocates SR SANKU AND D. Suresh Kumar.. Professor Kalyani and Advocate Rathinam of Tamilnadu ,too,participated in the writ proceedings in the HC of AP at Hyderabad and lent a helping hand .. Sri Sadasiva Reddy eminent advocate was appointed Amicus Curie to assist the court. MASI was released from his illegal detention of the Tirupati police.. The writ petition was filed basing on a news item published in the Indian Express.. Advocate Venkataraman of Hyderabad helped in understanding Tamil ..This valuable information, it appears was not brought to the knowledge of the High Court of Madras which proves that attempts were made to hush up the rape issue , by detaining else where Masi the head and bread winner of the family of Vijaya.. How many are aware of this
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