Varsity student sexual assault case: Court finds accused guilty, to pronounce verdict on June 2
Chennai (PTI): A Mahila Court here on Wednesday pronounced as guilty, A Gnanasekaran the biriyani vendor arrested in the sensational Anna University woman student sexual assault case, with the prosecution seeking "maximum punishment" for him.
Holding that the prosecution has proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, the court found Gnanasekaran guilty of the charges framed against him in the sexual assault case that rocked Tamil Nadu in December 2024.
Mahila Court Judge Rajalakshmi said she will pronounce the verdict in the case on June 2.
The government counsel later told reporters that the prosecution filed 11 charges against Gnanasekaran and proved all of them using documentary and forensic evidence.
"Today, he was pronounced guilty by the court. The details of the sentence will be given on June 2," she said.
Giving a brief update on the proceedings on Wednesday, she indicated that Gnanasekaran sought a lenient sentence claiming he was the sole bread-winner of the family.
"The prosecution strongly objected to this and sought the maximum punishment," she added.
The sensational case had triggered a political row over Gnanasekaran's alleged connections with the ruling DMK in the state, although the party president and Chief Minister M K Stalin had in January said he was only a sympathiser and supporter, and not a member of the Dravidian party.
The case came to light after the victim lodged a complaint before the All Women Police Station in Kotturpuram here on December 23 last year. In her complaint, the victim alleged that Gnanasekaran threatened her when she was with a male friend and then sexually harassed her.
Gnanasekaran was later arrested.
The FIR of the case was downloaded from the CCTNS website of Tamil Nadu police and broadcast by certain sections of the media which created a furore.
Later, the Madras High Court transferred the investigation of the case to a Special Investigation Team, which also probed the FIR leak.
The SIT filed a charge sheet in February before a magistrate court. Thereafter, the case was transferred to the Mahila Court.
The Mahila court framed charges against Gnanasekaran under sections various sections of the BNS, including sexual harassment, BNSS, IT Act and the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Women Harassment Act.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
