Priya and her family filed a complaint and the police registered an FIR on February 24, 2019. In an audio message that one of the accused Thirunavukkarasu released, he says that a false case has been foisted on him – but also suggests that ‘99 other women’ were willing participants. However, at least six women are there in the videos that have leaked now, only Forensic department can recover the rest. While there are media reports and estimates that there are anywhere between 50 and 200 victims of this racket, there is no confirmation of any such number so far. The lawyer of the survivor told TNM that they have recovered three videos from the cell phones they seized from two of the men. In all the videos, it is clear that the door of the room was kept open so other members of the gang could take pictures and shoot videos. If the sex was consensual, the men would threaten to upload the videos on the internet or circulate them through WhatsApp, unless the women gave them sexual favours, along with money and other valuables. The police say such videos were used to blackmail for money or sexual favours. In another video, Riswandh shoots a woman and continuously asks her whether she would meet him the next day. In another video, Sathish can be seen in a sexual act, and he has left the door open for his friends to shoot the act. In one of these videos, Thirunavukkarasu can be clearly seen. In the videos that the men have shot, the young women can be heard naming Riswandh (alias Sabarirajan) multiple times. TNM will not share the video, or other videos that are circulating. At least one such video of a young woman who was sexually assaulted by Riswandh (alias Sabarirajan) has been released by a Tamil magazine. If it was a sexual assault, one of the accomplices would barge in and pretend to be a saviour, while the other men continued to shoot the video. The police have filed an FIR on February 24 against Sabarirajan, Thirunavukkarasu, Sathish and Vasanthkumar under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354B (assault or use of criminal force against woman with intent to disrobe), and 394 (robbery) of the IPC section 66E of the IT Act (violation of privacy) and section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Sexual Harassment of Women Act (sexual harassment).Īll the while, his accomplices – hidden from view – would shoot the act on a camera. The family submitted this to the Pollachi police, along with a complaint of sexual harassment and robbery. Subhash and his friends got hold of Thirunavukkarasu and Sabarirajan’s cell phones, which contained videos of at least three other women that the men may have blackmailed. Her brother Subhash (name changed) then tracked down Thirunavukkarasu and Sabarirajan, beat them up, and unearthed what is perhaps an elaborate and scary sexual violence and extortion racket. But when the men blackmailed her and tried to extort money from her multiple times, Priya decided to take her family into confidence. Upset and scared, Priya did not reveal the incident to her family. When she screamed and cried, they left her in the middle of the road and drove away. They threatened her that if she did not do as they said, and provide them with sexual favours and money when they demanded it, they would upload the video on the internet. The four of them forcefully disrobed Priya and shot a video, and snatched a gold chain she was wearing. And suddenly, two more men – Sathish and Vasanthkumar – got in.
While Thirunavukkarasu started the car, Sabarirajan was sitting in the back seat with Priya. The duo asked her to get into the car with them, and said they would talk on the way. Sabarirajan, who also goes by the name Riswandh, asked Priya to meet him at a bus stop in Pollachi, and when Priya reached there in the afternoon, Sabarirajan was standing near a car along with his friend Thirunavukkarasu, another acquaintance of Priya. On February 12 this year, Priya (name changed), a 19-year-old college student in Pollachi, was called by her acquaintance, Sabarirajan, who told her that he wanted to discuss something important with her alone.