The Madras High Court on Monday refused to transfer the 2016-Ariyalur gang rape case to the CB-CID. As per reports, in December 2016, a 17-year-old Dalit minor girl went missing from Keezha Maligai village in Ariyalur. Two weeks later, a partially decomposed body of the woman was recovered from inside a dry well in Sirukadambur village.

The victim’s mother moved the High Court seeking a transfer of the case to the CB-CID stating that timely action by the police could have saved her child’s life.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan, who heard the petition on Monday, directed the DSP of Jeyamkondan to add section 376D (gang rape) to his final report. The judge also said that transferring the case to the CB-CID at this stage will not serve any purpose since the DSP had completed the investigation and submitted his report, and there was no wrong committed by the investigating officials.

Following refusal to transfer the case, the judge ordered that the chargesheet in the case be filed within two weeks and directed the trial court to complete trial and pronounce the judgment within six months.

The case shook Ariyalur in early 2017 after the victim’s body was found with her hands tied and with brutal injuries. The police traced the body after a man named Manikandan, a caste-Hindu and allegedly her estranged boyfriend, confessed to having murdered the woman. The police had, in 2017, told The Newsminute that the woman was kidnapped by Manikandan and was raped by him and his friends. The police had also said that the woman was pregnant and Manikandan wanted her to abort the foetus. Disagreement between the two over this led Manikandan to kill her, following which he dumped her body in the well. The police arrested Manikandan and three of his friends – Thirumurugan, Manivannan and Vetrichelvan – by January 15.