CUDDALORE (INDIA)
Express News Service
January 5, 2019
By Nirupa Sampath
Delivering its verdict in the sensational 2014 rape case involving two minor girls from Cuddalore and several prostitution gangs from across the State, the District Mahila Court on Friday found 16 people guilty under various charges including abduction, sexual assault and rape. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Monday.
According to Special Public Prosecutor K Selvapriya, one of the victims, then aged 13, was studying in a government school at Tittakudi. She used to visit an idly shop nearby and developed friendship with the woman who owned the shop. In 2014 during Pongal, the minor girl casually visited the woman’s house where she saw the woman having sex with an unknown man. Shocked over this, the girl tried to immediately leave the place but was caught by the woman. The woman then manipulated the girl into having sex with the unknown man.
Subsequently, the woman forced the girl to have sex with her husband and three other men. When the girl started protesting, the woman asked her to bring another girl if she was to be let off. Agreeing to this, the victim brought a minor girl, then aged 14, from her neighbourhood, to the woman’s house, only to be raped and sexually assaulted by the men of Tittakudi gang.
In the following months, the girls were trafficked to various places in the State such as Salem, Panruti, Vadalur, Virudachalam and Ulundurpet, and were abused by several men.
The police investigation had also revealed that the girls were forced to watch pornography and raped by a church priest when they were under the custody of the Tittakudi gang.
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