A college student filed a police complaint against four men for sexually assaulting her and taking videos or pictures of her. Sheela* was friends with Sabarirajan on Facebook. Sabarirajn asked Sheela to bunk her classes and come off to a secluded location in Pollachi. As he picked her up in his car, he made her stay inside and three of his other friends got into the car, sexually assaulted her, clicked pictures and videos of her and pushed her outside the car and sped away.Sabarirajan then blackmailed Sheela with the videos and extorted money from her. A very disturbed Sheela finally informed her brother of the situation and he confronted Sabarirajan. When the confrontation turned rough, the police intervened and that’s when Sheela’s brother narrated the story. Sheela then filed a formal complaint at the station against Sabarirajan, Vasanthkumar, Sathesh and Thirunavakarasu. The Police has nabbed all the four and has imposed the Goonda’s Act on the four accused.

The Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982 or the Goondas Act defines a goonda as “a member of or leader of a gang, habitually commits, or attempts to commit or abets the commission of offences.”

The accused can now be withheld without a bail option for up to one year – a non-bailable act precisely. In 2011, the Madras High Court held that a single case was enough to detain a person under the Goondas Act.

If it was not for Sheela, the torture the other 200 girls faced would have been silenced forever. Women must come forward and voice their opinion despite being suppressed. If not, there is no way these monsters could be provided with the highest level of punishment. Money has become so imperative that lives do not matter anymore and especially when it comes to women sexually attacking her seems to be the first option. This is absolutely disgusting and disturbing.

We, as women must stand with each other and our voices must be loud enough for Justice to open her eyes!

*Sheela is the representation of the victim’s name