New Delhi:  The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the plea seeking a court-monitored probe in the Pollachi sexual assault case. The court’s refusal came on Friday and the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi has asked the petitioners to approach the high court instead.

Two petitioners - A Rajarajan and Y William Vinoth Kumar had moved the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe into the matter, on March 16.

The petition, additionally, sought transfer of all the Pollachi sex scandal-related cases outside the state of Tamil Nadu.

A case has been filed against DMK chief MK Stalin by the Coimbatore Police for spreading false information.

Stalin had said that AIADMK minister SP Velumani was shielding the accused in the case.

Responding to this claim, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan had stated that the DMK is trying to shift the focus from the real culprit.

“A DMK functionary’s son is the aide of the prime accused in the Pollachi sexual assault case. But the DMK is trying to shift focus from that,” said Sathyan. He also iterated that the AIADMK was actively involved in bringing culprits to book and he denied that party members were involved.

“The AIADMK has pushed for CB-CID probe into the matter. It was Pollachi Jayaraman, who encouraged the victim to file a complaint against the accused. Then how can we shield them?” questioned Sathyan.

Speaking about Bar Nagaraj, who was an AIADMK functionary before getting sacked from the party after the case came to the fore, Sathyan said that Nagaraj was innocent.

“Bar Nagaraj was called to use political influence. He went to the police station and used a minister’s name. The police called the minister to find out if he knew Nagaraj. The minister denied and the party sacked him for using the party’s name. Bar Nagaraj thought it was a petty issue, he didn't know what the case was about,” claimed the AIADMK spokesman.

Further stating that the DMK had media influence, Sathyan added, “They have the strength to blow things out of proportion because of their stakes in the media.”

When MyNation spoke to senior lawyer Rajasekharan, he said, “All political parties will try to shield their defaulters. An independent inquiry into the case is required. Any person who has carried out such heinous acts, must be brought to book.”

The Pollachi sex scandal first came to the fore in February when a college student was asked to meet one of the four-member gang outside her college. She was then asked to get inside a car where one guy began disrobing her while three others were filming the act.

Upon investigation, it came to light that several women were victims of sexual assault. The gang’s modus operandi was to befriend girls on social media and sexually assault them later when they met.

Four accused persons identified as Sabarirajan, Sathish, Thirunavukarasu and Vasan Kumar were arrested in the case. They have been arrested under Section 392, 354 (A), 354 (B) of the Indian Penal Code and 66A of the Information Technology Act.

The case now stands transferred to the Crime Branch-CID (CB-CID), a special wing of the CID, which initiated an inquiry into the matter on March 13 after receiving requisite documents from the local police.

On March 26, CB-CID had summoned Thendral Manimaran, son of DMK’s Coimbatore rural district secretary Thendral Selvaraj in connection with the case. Also, a First Information Report was filed by crime branch on March 14 against MK Stalin’s son-in-law, Sabareesan, for allegedly spreading rumours.