Gang rape in Thanjavur exposes perpetrators’ impunity and flaws in criminal justice system

The survivor went to three police stations before her complaint was accepted, highlighting how the system remains stacked against women.

A 23-year-old woman was raped by a gang of six men near Orathanadu in Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu. | Photo Credit: leminuit

In a disturbing incident, a 23-year-old woman was raped by a gang of six men, including two juveniles, at Pappanadu village near Orathanadu in Thanjavur district in Tamil Nadu.

What is most disturbing about the crime is the blatant display of impunity with which it was committed by the perpetrators. The woman was raped in her neighbourhood, next to her home, and in broad daylight.

The incident also highlights how the systemic flaws in the State’s criminal justice system have once again failed a rape survivor even after she bravely came forward to file a complaint against her attackers.

The main accused, a man known to the survivor, dragged her brazenly down the stairs of her house to an open shed adjacent to her house and raped her there with the aid and abetment of five of his friends. Incidentally, the woman’s father was sleeping inside the house at the time of the crime.

When the young woman resisted, she was repeatedly stabbed in the shoulders and neck with a broken beer bottle. The terrified woman could not raise an alarm or alert the neighbours. After the criminals left in two motorbikes, the exhausted and terrified survivor gathered herself together and told her father and her sister’s husband about what had been done to her.

Long round of agony and Kafkaesque horrors

The family decided to take action against the culprits, but little did they realise that a long round of agony and Kafkaesque horrors awaited the survivor. According to local sources and media reports, when she, along with her father and brother-in-law, went to the Pappanadu Police Station to file a complaint, the Sub-Inspector on duty at the time instructed them to go to the All Women Police Station at Pattukottai.

When the three went to the Pattukottai Police, the personnel on duty told the woman to obtain a medical certificate from a government hospital. The hospital authorities, however, refused to provide her a medical certificate until she had first registered her complaint with the police since it was a rape case.

The exhausted survivor had to take a late-night bus to Orathanadu, 25 km away, to reach the Orathanadu Police Station and file her complaint. The Orathanadu police took her statement and referred her to the government hospital for medical examination.

By now, seven hours had elapsed between the occurrence of the crime and the recording of her statement. An FIR was filed the next day, August 13, at 7 am, 16 long hours after the rape was committed.

The police subsequently arrested Kavidhasan, the prime accused, and his friends Thivakar, Praveen, Liyo Dharshan, and two others, under Sections 127(2), 118(1), 70(1), 351(3), 308(5), and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

A senior police official in Thanjavur district told Frontline that the Pappanadu police sub-inspector who first refused to accept the complaint has been suspended. An internal inquiry has also been initiated against the other officials involved in the case. The senior officer claimed that further action would be taken based on the results of the inquiry.

Tamil Nadu: Rise in POCSO cases

Tamil Nadu has had its share of horrific rape and murder cases in the past. A pregnant 17-year-old minor Dalit girl was gang-raped and her highly mutilated body thrown into an unused well at Ariyalur in December 2016. Her lover, a local Hindu Munnani functionary, and three of his friends were arrested after the intervention of social activists. It transpired that the girl, after finding out that she had become pregnant, had insisted that her lover marry her, and so he and his friends had committed the crime.

According to statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau, the number of crimes against women in Tamil Nadu rose from 8,501 in 2021 to 9,207 in 2022. On average, a girl is molested every two hours in the State. In addition, Tamil Nadu ranks third in Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases, with a total of 4,906 cases registered in 2022, following Madhya Pradesh (5,951) and Uttar Pradesh (7,970).