8 men including 2 DMK members and 4 minors have been arrested for raping a woman, filming the act and threatening to post it in social media. DMK which waxes eloquent about women safety and entertainment has merely “temporarily suspended” the rapists.

A 22 year old woman in Virudhunagar got into physical relationship with Hariharan (22), a colleague from the garment factory she worked in. Reportedly they were in love and the woman had physical relationship with him on the promise of marriage. Hariharan hid the fact that he is already married and secretly filmed their intimate affair. He later shared the video with Junaid Khan (27). Both are said to be DMK members.

Junaid shared the video with his car driver Praveen (21) and 4 school students who also raped the victim by threatening to share the video in social media. Two of them are Class XII boys and other two are studying Classes IX and XI. She has been sexually abused since August 2021 by the 8 of them repeatedly. They also posted her contact number in social media following which the victim received calls from numerous unknown persons. They demanded to have physical relationship with her and on refusing which abused her verbally.

The victim has reached out to an acquaintance Madasamy (37) for help. But he also took advantage of her situation and raped her multiple times. Victim’s parents had made arrangements for her marriage but the accused continued to harass her and sexually assault her. Victim filed a police complaint on March 20 following which all 8 were arrested.

While four of them have been remanded in judicial custody, the 4 minors were produced before Juvenile Justice Board and sent a juvenile observation home. Both the DMK functionaries have been arrested by police but the party has only “temporarily suspended” them for bringing bad repute to the party.