Chennai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has pulled up the Tamil Nadu government for its callousness in handling the Pollachi sexual assault case. The government has been ordered to pay Rs 25 lakh to the victim as compensation for revealing her name in an order.

The court has also directed the Tamil Nadu government to take disciplinary action against the superintendent of police R Pandiarajan, who had disclosed the identity of the victim in a press conference.

The court has asked the government to issue a fresh order without the name of the victim and withdraw the earlier order, which names the victim.

"Great damage has been caused to the victim and therefore, the victim has to be compensated," read the court order.

According to law, no details that would help in identifying the victim of sexual assault or rape is allowed to be published. 

The court order comes after much of the damage has already been done. 

The details of the victim has already been widely circulated and a video of another victim has also been leaked from the phone of one of the accused. 

The Pollachi sexual assault case was first reported on February 24. The woman had been assaulted on February 12.

The 19-year-old girl from Pollachi was allegedly sexually harassed by Sabarirajan and his three aides - Thirunavukkarasu, Sathish and Vasanthkumar. 

Sabarirajan had allegedly befriended the victim through Thirunavukkarasu, who the victim was friends with. 

Sabarirajan allegedly asked the victim to meet him during the lunch break. When the victim met him outside her college, Sabarirajan asked her to get into the car he had come in. 

The victim found out that three others were also present in the car. She was allegedly sexually assaulted by Sabarirajan while the others filmed the act. 

The case took a political turn when the police Nagaraj, a local AIADMK worker, was named in the case. The judicial magistrate let him off on bail as his name did not figure in the FIR. He was expelled from the party.

The case has been transferred to the CBI, while the CB-CID have been granted custody of prime accused Thirunavukkarasu for four days.