Anna University case: Justice delivered but questions on crime prevention remain

Anna University. (File photo)

It was an open and shut case, but when the names of powerful politicians are drawn into sexual assault crimes the victims are not certain if they would get justice in the end.

A Mahila Court on Wednesday handed out a guilty verdict in the rape case that grabbed national attention. In the evening of December 23, 2024, within the prestigious Anna University campus, a food vendor and history sheeter Gnanasekaran attacked a student, recording the sexual assault on his phone and threatening to leak the video if she complained to the police. The conviction comes five months after the filing of the FIR.

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu, subsequent to fielding allegations that the accused was a party sympathiser with connections to a minister, is now trying to claim credit for quick closure to the sordid case.

Gnanasekaran (37) was convicted on all 11 sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Information Technology Act, and Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act under which he was charged by the special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Madras High Court to investigate the case. The quantum of punishment would be pronounced on June 2.

The survivor was a 19-year-old engineering student who was with a male friend sitting on the steps of the university, when Gnanasekaran, a biryani seller and a historysheeter, approached them and first assaulted the male friend and threatened to report them to the administration and their parents with the video he had taken of them. When they pleaded with him to leave them alone, Gnanasekaran asked the girl to stay put there and took the boy away. He returned to the girl telling her that her friend was caught by university staff. He then took her to a secluded spot and sexually assaulted her. He recorded the assault and threatened to reveal it if she did not comply with his demands later. The girl filed an FIR the next day at the Kottur police station.

The state was shocked over the fact that such an incident could happen inside the campus of a premier institution, that there were no security arrangements in the campus and that Tamil Nadu had become unsafe for women under the DMK government. The BJP and the AIADMK ran an extensive campaign.

Even on May 13, when Pollachi sexual assault case verdict was pronounced granting life imprisonment to all convicts, the former Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami criticised Stalin government for not instituting a CBI probe in the Anna University case.

But DMK denied the allegations right through and denied that the accused was a member of the DMK. The Madras High Court took up the case suo motu and appointed an all-women SIT comprising senior police officials to investigate the case. The SIT filed a chargesheet in the Saidapet Magistrate, in February. The case was transferred to the Mahila Court under the judge M Rajalakshmi, who convicted Gnanasekaran on Wednesday.

“We have demolished the intentions of those in the Opposition parties, who once led a government that was mired in controversies but attempted to play cheap politics in this case. Let us take a pledge to uphold the rule of law and the safety of women,” said Chief Minister MK Stalin in a social media post, welcoming the verdict and terming opposition accusations as “cheap politics”. He also praised and thanked the police and the investigation officers for getting justice within five months.

Comparing the Anna University case to the Pollachi sexual assault case, Tuticorin MP K Kanimozhi commended the police for ensuring justice in 157 days in the former, while the latter, which took place during Palaniswami government and investigated by the CBI, took six years. The organising secretary of the DMK said that the accused Gnanasekaran was arrested immediately and the strong arguments by the state government ensured the conviction of the accused.

But the real issue is that such crimes do take place, and on campuses frequented by woman students and considered as safe environs. Those peddling political influence find it easy to get past security personnel. And without the cases hitting news headlines, the investigating agencies are under no pressure to arrest the culprits and ensure justice.

For every case where the survivor comes forward and fights for justice, there are countless others where the survivors hide away and are happy to just be left alone by the predators.