HC directs Pondi Govt to pay Rs 1 lakh to rape victim

CHENNAI, APRIL 21: The Madras High Court has directed the Pondicherry Government to pay, within two months, Rs one lakh as compensation t...

CHENNAI, APRIL 21: The Madras High Court has directed the Pondicherry Government to pay, within two months, Rs one lakh as compensation to a 22-year-old Scheduled Tribe woman, who was gang raped in a village in Tamil Nadu by six police personnel attached to the Grand Bazaar police station in Pondicherry.

The authorities of the Pondicherry Government cannot escape from owning the responsibility for the inhuman act committed by its public servants, said the court. It is a well settled law that the State is responsible for the tortuous acts of its employees. For police atrocities, the State should pay compensation to the victim. It cannot have a protective umbrella to disengage itself from its liability to pay compensation on the ground that the wrong committed was not in Pondicherry, but in Tamil Nadu, Justice M Karpagavinayagam has observed.

The judge was disposing of a petition from the rape victim C Vijaya, praying for a direction to the CB CID in Villupuram to add the appropriate Sections under theSC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the charge-sheet and to present it in the special court constituted under the Act, besides a compensation from the Pondicherry Government.

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According to petitioner, on the night of July 29, 1993, the cops took Vijaya in a police van from Pondicherry to Sitharasur village in Villupuram district in search of her cousin Vellaiyan, who was wanted in connection with a theft case. She was gang-raped by the cops in a thatched shed belonging to Vellaiyan’s father in Vellamai village.

The judge observed that from the statements of the witnesses and the victim, it was clear that Vijaya belongs to Irular caste, a Scheduled Tribe. Therefore, the CB CID ought to have handed over the further investigation to the DSP, who is competent under Rule 7 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Obviously this was not done. This failure definitely would cause prejudice to the interest of the victim, the judge said, and directed the authorities to depute a DSP, as required under theAct, to hold further investigation. The judge also directed the Assistant Sessions Judge, Tindivanam, before whom the matter is pending, to transfer the case to the special court constituted by the Act to try such cases. The DSP should file an additional charge-sheet before the special court within two months.

The judge further observed that the Pondicherry Government has not only shirked its responsibility by not taking proper action against the accused police personnel, but had also failed to arrest and hand them over to the Tamil Nadu police despite a plea from the Tamil Nadu Government.

The ends of justice would be met if the Pondicherry Government is directed to pay Rs one lakh as compensation, the judge said and ordered accordingly.

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The judge also pulled up the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Pondicherry, for his alleged misconduct while conducting an inquiry on the basis of a complaint given by Vijaya to the State Human Rights Commission (HRC). The CJM had allegedly used filthy language againstthe victim and a professor of Tindivanam, who helped her in drafting the complaint to the HRC. “Though I do not go into the allegations to find out the truth or otherwise, if these allegations are true, I would only say that this is quite unfortunate on the part of the CJM to have conducted himself in such a manner under the garb of inquiry,” the judge said.