The Chennai Mahila Court on Wednesday found accused Gnanasekaran guilty in the Anna University sexual assault case and said the prosecution has “proved the case beyond reasonable doubt”.
Mahila Court Judge Rajalakshmi said that she will pronounce the verdict in the case on June 2.
The incident took place in December last year when the accused trespassed into the campus of Chennai’s premier engineering institution and allegedly forced the 19-year-old victim to perform “sexual acts” with him and asked her to meet him regularly.
Anna University sexual assault: What happened?
The second-year college student was speaking to her male friend, a third-year student, at around 8 pm on December 23, 2024, behind a building when the accused threatened them. Gnanasekaran first assaulted the male student and then sexually abused the teen girl, HT had reported.
The survivor filed a complaint with the Kotturpuram All Women’s police station on December 24.
Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner A Arun, at the time, told reporters that 20 cases had been filed against the accused, and he had been convicted in six of them. “All of them are petty crimes like theft and housebreaking. There are no cases of rowdyism and sexual assault against him. We have not received such complaints so far,” Arun had said.
In her complaint, the survivor had said that the accused came in front of her on the day of the incident after having recorded private moments with her boyfriend on his mobile phone. He had threatened to leak the video and also send it to her father and the college authorities.
When the girl begged him not to leak the video, Gnanasekaran allegedly took her friend away, threatened him to leave and then took her to a secluded spot about 200 metres nearby inside the campus itself and gave her three options. “When I remained silent, he got angry and began touching me,” her statement in the FIR read.
Gnanasekaran had also reportedly taken pictures of her ID card, her father’s number, and threatened her to keep meeting him, failing which he would release her videos.
Following the registration of the case and Gnanasekaran’s arrest, the Madras high court had also directed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the sexual assault case.
Additionally, the HC bench of SM Subramaniam and V Lakshminarayan had ordered the state of Tamil Nadu to pay an interim compensation of ₹25 lakh to the survivor for the “serious lapse” on the part of the police in revealing her details in the first information report (FIR) made available to the public on the police website.
However, the high court’s order was later stayed by the Supreme Court. A top court bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Satish Chandra Sharma had clarified that the SIT would continue its investigation into the assault case.
A political row had also erupted in the backdrop of this case, with the BJP and other parties alleging Gnanasekaran’s connections with the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the state.
Later in January, DMK president and chief minister MK Stalin had clarified that the accused was only a sympathiser and supporter of his party, not a member.