'Give justice to Athiyur Vijaya'

Puducherry, Sep 22: Alleging that justice was denied to Athiyur Vijaya, a tribal girl allegedly gang raped by six Poducherry policemen at Athiyur in Villuppram district of Tamil Nadu, Federation for People's Rights (FPR) and Scheduled Tribe Protection Movement (STPM) today 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 gangraped.

The acquittal was shocking, they said and added the judgement 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