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.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
