http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article2497067.ece?homepage=true
Dharmapuri, September 29, 2011
215 sentenced to jail in Vachathi case
R. Arivanantham
A long, agonising wait for justice ends Rape convicts sent to jail It
took more than a fortnight for the world to come to know of the
atrocities in remote village Three Vachathi case accused surrender
before court Lower court directed to expedite trial in Vachathi case
Vachathi case: seventeen accused arrested immediately
Justice for hapless tribal victims after more than 19 years
More than 19 years after forest and police officials descended on
Vachathi, a tribal hamlet in western Tamil Nadu, and committed
atrocities on hapless villagers in a raid said to be against
sandalwood smuggling, a district and sessions court here on Thursday
found 215 government officials and employees guilty and handed down
prison terms ranging from two years to 10 years of rigorous
imprisonment. Seventeen persons were convicted of the charge of rape.
Among the senior officials found guilty by Principal District and
Sessions Judge S. Kumaraguru were a retired Conservator of Forests,
two serving Conservators and an Additional Chief Conservator of
Forests.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which was directed by the Madras
High Court to investigate the case, arraigned 269 officials of the
Forest, Police and Revenue Departments, but only 215 lived to receive
the verdict in a court thronged by victims, their family members and
activists who had supported them over the years. The remaining 54
officials are dead.
On June 20, 1992, a large contingent of officials entered Vachathi
following information that sandalwood was being illegally felled and
smuggled. The team claimed to have recovered a huge quantity of
sandalwood from a riverbed.
Later, the villagers complained that under the pretext of conducting a
search, the raiding party had ransacked their property, destroyed
houses and killed their cattle.
The most shocking charge was that the men in uniform had raped 18 women.
The State government denied the charges. The then Forests Minister,
K.A. Sengottaiayan, now Agriculture Minister, had accused the entire
village of being involved in sandalwood smuggling, and when a team of
officials went there for investigation, the villagers had attacked
them.
However, in 1995, on a writ petition filed by the then CPI (M) State
secretary, A. Nallasivan, the Madras High Court handed over the probe
to the CBI, which charge-sheeted the 269 officials. Later,
compensation was paid to the victims.
The senior-most official convicted was the first accused, M.
Harikrishnan, a retired Conservator of Forests, who was awarded a
three-year prison term under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code for
causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information to
screen the offender, and another three years of rigorous imprisonment
and Rs.1,000 in fine under Section 3(2)(1) of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Accused number 2, Additional Chief Conservator of Forests P.
Muthaiyan, was sentenced to jail for a year under Section 342
(wrongful confinement) of the IPC. Conservator of Forests, Dindigul,
L.Nathan was given a one-year term. S. Balaji, Conservator of Forests,
Chennai, was awarded three-year rigorous imprisonment on three counts,
but the terms would run concurrently. He was also fined Rs.5,000.
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