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The sexual assault of a 19-year-old girl student on December 23, 2024, at Anna University, a premier educational institution in Tamil Nadu, has escalated into a major political controversy, with the State government facing intense criticism both for the incident and its handling of the events that followed.
After refusing to comment on the issue, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who also holds the Home portfolio, was finally forced to make a statement in the Legislative Assembly on January 8, a fortnight after the incident.
Two days after the assault, the State Police said that it had arrested the accused, a man named Gnanasekaran, and asserted that he had acted alone, a claim contested by opposition parties, the National Commission for Women (NCW), and other groups, including student organisations.
AIADMK campaign The Chief Minister broke his silence on the issue because of a unique campaign launched by the principal opposition party in the State, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), revolving around the question “Yaar Andha Saar?” (who is that Sir?). The campaign, which has found resonance across the State, was based on reports that the accused was speaking to someone on the phone whom he addressed as “Sir”. The AIADMK’s contention is that multiple people were involved in the assault.
The campaign has become a talking point, with a member of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), who requested anonymity, claiming that no other campaign has had such a negative impact on the DMK’s image as this.
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The 37-year-old man whom the police arrested on December 25 has a history of having assaulted women. He had a biryani shop on the pavement near the university. On December 26, Chennai Police Commissioner A. Arun addressing a press meeting, said: “Media reports had specified that there was a second person at the scene of the crime, and that he received a call from another person, including a reference to a ‘sir’. But that is not true.”
“It is very clear that the arrested person belongs to the DMK,” insisted Kovai Sathyan, the AIADMK’s national spokesperson, who coined the slogan. “We are taking this campaign to the next level. Around 200 cars will carry bumper stickers with the slogan and travel around Tamil Nadu to mount pressure on the DMK,” he told Frontline.
Since January 6, the inaugural day of the Assembly’s current session, AIADMK MLAs have been sporting badges with the slogan.
Chief Minister’s rejoinderHowever, claiming that the State was safe for women, Stalin said that an AIADMK functionary was arrested on sexual assault charges as recently as January 7 in an investigation carried out by the CBI and not a State agency. He reminded the AIADMK of the Pollachi sexual assault case and told the Assembly that the authorities at that time had handed over the survivors’ complaints to the perpetrators themselves.
On the Anna University incident, he said: “If you have any evidence to support your ‘Yaar Andha Saar’ campaign, you should give it to the investigating agency.” He also told the AIADMK MLAs on January 8: “We can ask you a hundred such questions.”
The AIADMK staged a walkout from the Assembly over what it termed the DMK’s reluctance to arrest the real culprits.
The AIADMK’s contention is that the DMK is shielding the true criminals while the DMK points to the AIADMK’s poor record on women’s safety in its previous decade in power and questions the locus standi of the party functionaries to criticise the government.
On December 30, the AIADMK conducted demonstrations across the State, claiming that the law and order situation had deteriorated and women’s safety was not a concern of the government.
Speaking to the media on December 31, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister, said: “Our IT wing office-bearers had run the ‘Yaar Andha Saar’ campaign in order to ensure that the true criminals are apprehended. But the police are filing cases against them [party workers].”
He added that his party would continue the protests until justice was rendered to the girl. He also demanded withdrawal of the cases against AIADMK office-bearers.
The AIADMK has asked if the accused gained access to the university because he was a DMK man. DMK spokespersons have consistently denied that the accused belongs to the party. However, the AIADMK has shared videos of the accused at DMK events and one image of him walking about with a DMK Minister. In the Assembly, Stalin asserted that the accused was not a DMK functionary but could have been a party sympathiser.
Highlights Tamil Nadu’s DMK government faces intense criticism both for the incident and its handling of the events that followed. The AIADMK’s contention is that the DMK is shielding the true criminals. Contrary to established practice, the FIR in the case was briefly available online and the student’s identity became public knowledge soon. The Madras High Court ordered a team of three women police officers to probe the case. Many universities in the State do not have the resources to take up intensive security. Accused arrest and FIR leakEnquiries on the ground revealed that the accused was frequently seen in DMK functions and was known to the local police station. He has earlier been arrested in at least one major case. When this correspondent talked to a group of students at the university, they asked why a person with such a past was allowed into the campus. The other issue they raised related to the leak of the FIR filed by the survivor.
It is an established practice that the public is not allowed access to the “FIR View” page of the Tamil Nadu Police in sensitive cases to protect the identity of sexual assault survivors. This rule was violated, and the FIR was up for about 10 minutes before the error was noticed, a source said.
The police said that as many as 14 people had downloaded the FIR by then (the National Informatics Centre later attributed the leak to technical glitches and migration of Indian Penal Code data to the Bharatiya Nyana Sanhita platform). A Tamil news cable television channel also put out the details of the FIR. In effect, the student’s identity became public knowledge in a matter of hours. The law mandates that the identity of the survivor or victim in rape and sexual offence cases be kept confidential. Arun said a separate case had been registered over the FIR leak.
The Madras High Court, which entertained two PIL petitions on shifting the case to the CBI, on December 28 ordered a team of three women police officers to probe the case. The vacation court raised several uncomfortable questions of the government, including the conduct of the Police Commissioner. It ordered the government to pay Rs.25 lakh to the survivor for “the trauma and humiliation she had to undergo after the FIR she filed was leaked”.
Ministers reactFour State Ministers questioned the AIADMK’s motives and requested that the sexual assault not be politicised. But, when speaking to the media in Pudukkottai, Law Minister S. Reghupathy brought up the Pollachi sex scandal during the AIADMK regime. He said: “The AIADMK failed to act until public protests forced it to [in Pollachi]. The DMK has taken swift action [in this case]. We don’t need to shield anyone.”
Social Welfare Minister P. Geetha Jeevan said that the AIADMK was trying to drive girl students out of higher education by instilling fear in them. “The women of Tamil Nadu trust the DMK government,” she claimed.
Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, another woman Minister in the Tamil Nadu Cabinet, who is in charge of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, pointed to another case and claimed that it was the government’s swift action that had led to a stalker being sentenced to death for murdering a girl. (In that case, a girl was pushed in front of a moving train and the judgment was delivered just over two years after the crime.)
Higher Education Minister Govi. Chezhiaan contradicted Commissioner Arun on how and when the FIR was filed and later issued a clarification blaming opposition party leaders and accusing them of mischief.
On December 30, Vijay, actor and founder of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party, met Governor R.N. Ravi and handed over a memorandum on the issue. A Raj Bhavan note said that Vijay sought the Governor’s intervention in the “severely deteriorating law and order situation in the State and serious threat to women’s safety, with the incident of sexual assault at Anna University campus being the latest demonstration of the situation”.
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Vijay also wrote a letter to his “dear sisters” in the State in which he described the incident as “deeply shocking and painful” and that he was writing the letter because “there is no point in asking those in power to act”.
NCW interventionThe NCW said on December 28 that it “had already taken suo motu cognizance” and constituted a fact-finding committee to investigate and recommend action. On December 31, it posted on the social media platform X that “to ensure accountability, the NCW had assessed security at Anna University, met the SIT, and engaged stakeholders, including NGOs and students. A detailed report, with actionable recommendations was prepared. The safety of students remains non-negotiable.”
To ensure accountability, the NCW assessed security at Anna University, met the SIT, and engaged stakeholders, including NGOs and students. A detailed report with actionable recommendations was prepared. The safety of students remains non-negotiable.@ncwmamtakumari@pibchennai… pic.twitter.com/6TlCVRdsjW
— NCW (@NCWIndia) December 31, 2024NCW member Mamta Kumari later told mediapersons that the report would be submitted to the Central government. She wanted to know how the government had allowed a habitual offender to roam around in and around the university campus.
While the issue has snowballed into an all-out political slugfest over women’s safety, not much attention is being paid to crucial issues such as the poor infrastructure in public universities. Entry into the campuses of many public universities is easy. For instance, Anna University is in the middle of the city, with multiple access points as a result of poor perimeter fencing. In fact, the wall along the main entrance of the university along Sardar Patel Road is easily scalable.
Rot in higher educationAnna University suffers from the same issues that plague most public institutions. The CCTVs installed across the campus barely function, and the university has a few outsourced security personnel, who are confined largely to the main entrance and to the second entrance in Kotturpuram. As such, anyone who wants to enter Anna University does not need to try too hard. This is in sharp contrast to a Central government institution just across the road—IIT Madras, where entry is sharply monitored.
Anna University has been headless (without a Vice Chancellor) since August 2024 because of a serious and unbridgeable rift between the government and the Governor, the Chancellor of universities in the State. This has contributed to administrative laxity.
On December 27, Anna University set up a committee comprising senior faculty members and women and student representatives, under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment policy, to improve security measures on campus. On December 29, Higher Education Secretary K. Gopal asked universities to conduct third-party security audits at their campuses and monitor all outsiders. On January 7, Govi. Chezhiaan announced that the government was planning to rope in UNESCO to address women’s safety issues in colleges and universities.
But the reality is that many universities in the State do not have Vice Chancellors in place and do not have the resources to take up intensive security or related works without grants from the State.