All 269 convicted in Vachathi tribals rape and assault case

Nearly two decades after gruesome atrocities committed on the tribal villagers of Vachathi in Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu, all 269 government officials accused in the case were found guilty and sentenced by S Kumaraguru, principal district judge, Dharmapuri on Thursday. But 54 among the accused died during the intervening period. The accused were policemen, forest and revenue department officials .


Of the 215 accused, , 17 were convictedon rape charges and four forest officials were convicted of commiting crime under the SC/ST act for atrocities against tribals. The accused have been convicted on various counts of torture, unlawful restraint, misuse of office and looting.Among those convicted are 126 forest officials, 84 policemen and 5 revenue officials.

The maximum punishment of 17 years was handed out to 12 guilty of rape and the other five rapists got seven years each. All the others got punishments ranging from one year to three years and fine.

The charge was that on June 20, 1992, a group of policemen, forest personnel and revenue department officials went to Vachathi, in the pretext of probing sandalwood smuggling. The allegation was that the villagers were hand in glove with sandalwood smugglers operating in the nearby forest. The officials lined up all the residents in the village and selectively beaten up and tortured the men . Nearly 20 women and young girls were bundled into a truck, taken to the nearby forest office and were subjected to rape and torture.

Though the incidents were brought to light the then governmentled by Jayalalithaa did not take action against the erring officials responsible for the act of atrocity. The CPI(M) unit of the district took the brief for the innocent villagers and the Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe into the case which culminated in today’s conviction.