A Mahila Courtroom in Chennai on Monday sentenced A Gnanasekaran, the only accused within the 2024 Anna College campus rape case, to life imprisonment with out the opportunity of remission.
The court docket ordered that he should serve a minimal of 30 years in jail and imposed a advantageous of Rs 90,000 on him.
Mahila Courtroom choose M Rajalakshmi handed down the sentence 4 days after convicting Gnanasekaran on 11 expenses, together with rape, abduction, wrongful confinement, and felony intimidation beneath the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Info Know-how Act, and the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Ladies Act.
The judgment got here almost six months after the survivor, a 19-year-old pupil, filed a criticism on December 24, 2024.
In keeping with police, on the night time of December 23, the coed and a male good friend had been sitting within the college campus when Gnanasekaran, a 37-year-old roadside biryani vendor with a protracted felony file, confronted them. He pretended to file a video of the pair and used the specter of exposing the footage to govern and separate them.
He then sexually assaulted the lady in a secluded spot and recorded the act on his cell phone. He subsequently tried to blackmail her, threatening to ship the footage to her father and school authorities if she didn’t comply along with his calls for.
The scholar, nevertheless, refused to be silenced. With assist from her household and school, she approached the Kotturpuram All Ladies Police Station the following day. Gnanasekaran was arrested on December 25.
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The case gained nationwide consideration after the First Info Report (FIR) containing the survivor’s identification was uploaded within the official web site, which was then circulated amongst media individuals. The Madras Excessive Courtroom took suo motu cognisance of the problem and rebuked the Tamil Nadu Police for each the tone of the FIR, which was seen as victim-blaming, and the safety lapses on campus.
It shaped a Particular Investigation Group (SIT) of senior ladies IPS officers to take over the probe. The SIT, led by Bhukya Sneha Priya, Ayman Jamal, and S Brinda, filed a 100-page chargesheet on February 24.
Throughout sentencing arguments, the defence pleaded for leniency, citing Gnanasekaran’s aged mom and younger daughter. The prosecution, nevertheless, strongly opposed the plea and demanded the utmost penalty. Choose Rajalakshmi upheld the prosecution’s argument, calling the assault “a premeditated act exploiting institutional vulnerabilities.”
The court docket’s resolution to impose a life sentence with out remission — uncommon in circumstances not involving a number of victims or minors — has been seen as sending a stern message towards sexual violence on campuses.
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In the meantime, the Excessive Courtroom’s path to the state authorities to pay Rs 25 lakh as interim compensation to the survivor — recoverable from officers chargeable for the FIR leak — was later stayed by the Supreme Courtroom.
The survivor continues her research, shielded by court-mandated anonymity.