india

Updated: May 13, 2019 23:55 IST

An accused in the Pollachi sexual harassment case surrendered before the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday and was sent to judicial custody till May 20.

The development has come weeks after the CBI took over the probe into the alleged sexual assault case in Pollachi town of Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district.

The accused, Manivannan alias Mani, surrendered before the federal agency here on Monday, CBI officials said.

“Manivannan had allegedly attacked a brother of one of the victims for lodging a police complaint. After the CBI took over the case from the Crime Branch CID wing of Tamil Nadu on April 27, we were in search of Manivannan. Therefore, he surrendered before us,” persons familiar with the development said.

This is the fifth arrest in the case. The four main accused -- Sabarirajan, Sathish, Thirunavukkarasu and Vasanthakumar -- are currently under judicial custody.

The CBI had on April 27 registered two FIRs in the case, one pertaining to the sexual harassment of the complainant and another related to the assault on her brother. Both FIRs were against different sets of the accused.

The four men were arrested in February this year for allegedly sexually harassing a 19-year-old college student, filming the act and blackmailing her. The case attracted national attention when it was revealed that the accused might have assaulted over 50 women.

The case assumed political overtones when it was revealed that one of the accused was earlier associated with the ruling AIADMK before being expelled from the party.

While initially the state police’s crime branch was probing the case, it was later transferred to the CBI.