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DHARMAPURI: The much-awaited judgment in the sensational Vachathi mass rape and savage attack case was on Monday put off to September 29 (Thursday) as three of the 216 surviving accused failed to appear before the Principal District Judge S Kumaraguru here.

The judge issued warrants to produce before the court the absentee accused Angamuthu (A18), Rajanandham (A60) and Ramadas (A98) on Thursday. Almost every family from Vachathi, a nondescript village 12 km from Harur in Dharmapuri district, whose members were allegedly subjected to a reign of brutal assault and torture by forest and police department personnel during June 20-22, 1992, had converged on the court complex with great expectations only to return disappointed.

As many as 18 women of the village were raped during the raid conducted by forest officials accompanied by over 100 police personnel and six revenue department staff, in the aftermath of an alleged attack on some forest guards who had gone to seize hidden sandalwood from Vachathi.

“After more than 19 long years of wait, we had come here anticipating the verdict today. I even skipped my daily wage work under MNREGS to listen to the judge punishing the accused. I am deeply disappointed but I will certainly be back on Thursday,” said Saalam, a 50-something, woman

DNA Report :
The accused were convicted on various counts of torture, unlawful restraint, misuse of office and looting. 
As many as 54 of the accused died during the intervening period. Of the remaining 215 accused, 17 were convicted on rape charges and four forest officials were convicted of committing crime under the SC/ST act for atrocities against the tribals.

Dharmapuri district judge S Kumaraguru handed out the maximum punishment of 17 years jail to 12 men found guilty of rape, and seven-year-term to the other five rapists. All others got punishments ranging from one year to three years and fine.

The then government led by J Jayalalithaa did not take action against the erring officials. The CPI(M) unit of the district held the brief for the villagers and the Madras High Court ordered a CBI probe into the case.

Raju one of them punished:

He was not willing to admit the extent of atrocities that he witnessed in the village but claimed that his only fault was that he was the Village Administative Officer (VAO) at that time and had to visit the village after reports of clashes between forest officials and villagers reached him.

Raju was included as one of the 269 accused in the CBI chargesheet and sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment on Thursday.

"Lot of things happened on that day. I have been trying to forget it for the past 19 years. It has taken a toll on my life," said a visibly shaken Raju on Thursday just before the verdict.