“It’s tragic.” Four years ago, when Shanmughanandam and Keerthana Balaji launched Pollachi Papyrus, a magazine and blog on the little known wonders of the town and its verdant surroundings, a search for their town drew nothing of note. “And on the other side my parents want to marry me off – it’s as if they’re afraid of what we may be doing on social media.” Across the city, while there’s unanimity on the demand for an impartial and thorough probe into the case, equally common are the questions and doubts about the victims’ intentions. “They’re saying on Facebook that nobody should marry girls from Pollachi,” said one 20-year-old college student in the town. Suddenly, the claim that ‘600′ young women had been abused by the ‘gang’ meant all manner of opinions on Pollachi’s girls were the order of the day. Interrogation of the accused revealed that the men may have lured and blackmailed women for money and sexual favours since 2013, but the February 12 victim’s details were revealed, so most feel other victims’ hesitation is therefore understandable.But the ferment in Pollachi is not on account of the crime alone, brazen and grisly as it was. Rumours abound in Pollachi that some were married women, that one woman’s husband paid an exorbitant sum to keep the matter under wraps, and that the men sold some videos to porn sites - but the salacious gossip remains unevidenced.Unsurprisingly, not a single woman has come forward as a second complainant despite a dedicated police helpline. And yet, Pollachi continues to protest.Also read This Tuesday, trade associations across the town decided to keep shops closed. AdvertisingNow, nearly a month since the police complaint was filed, the police have overcome some mortifying gaffes including revealing the name of the victim and complainant four men are in judicial custody.

But by early March, what could have been just another sordid crime had sparked an incensed protest in the town as social media outrage poured into the streets too, students and women’s organisations staging demonstrations that appeared to be increasingly embarrassing for the Tamil Nadu government. Two men who had befriended her through WhatsApp a few months ago had picked her up in a car on a state highway, near the Unjavelampatti bus stop, barely 5 km outside the main city, not far from a couple of colleges.

FileLate in February, when three men were arrested in Tamil Nadu’s Pollachi for allegedly sexually abusing a college student and trying to film her, the town responded as expected, with shock. A students’ protest demanding government action in the Pollachi sexual assault, in Madurai.

Pollachi leaked video