 This International Women's Day is very special for the women of Vachati, a tribal village in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. On September 29, 2023, the Madrasai Court upheld the conviction of 269 government employees. The verdict came after 31 years of legal struggle against the rape of 18 women of the village by the police, forest and revenue officials in 1992. The brutal incident took place between June 2022 in 1992, when some forest, police and revenue officials entered this small hamlet situated in the foothills of Chittiri, the village housed 186 Malayani tribal families who made their living from small-scale farming and cattle growing. Newsweek spoke to the leaders of the long struggle and the courageous women who brought to light the brutal repression they faced with the support from the Tamil Nadu Tribals Association and the Communist Party of India, Marxist. The forest guards of the village were 20-30 people. They came to the village from the other side of the village and said, they hit the village with their eyes and said, you are the one who hit the village. They said, don't hit me, tell me what I did wrong, they didn't let me do that. We were working near the village. My mother and my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law came to the village and said, when they came to the village, they came to the village and said that they liked us and they didn't hit us. They came to the village to sell their crops. They drank from that place and came to sell their crops. According to the local police, they were the ones who hit the village. Earlier, they used to break our houses. They used to break the windows, windows, glass doors and windows. In the same way, the women who had died with me, they brought the children to Yari-Kari with them. We were separated from each other in the family and in the family. We got caught in that trap and... ...we were portrayed in the same way as the girls and 18 girls. We were raped and raped. We couldn't bear to see how much we fought. Our hands, our heads, our heads were all tied up. Mother, please forgive us. After that, we were beaten up and taken to the hospital. We couldn't tell each other when we went to the river. We saw each other and we were crying. After that, we felt the pain. Like we were standing here, when we came to Meduva, we were taken to Parastabis. That night, we didn't feel the pain. We were going to the river to drink water. They asked us to go to the river. One night, we couldn't sleep at night. We were beaten to death. My uncle was beaten up by a farmer. He was beaten up. He was handed over to me. They told me that I was beaten up by a farmer. On the next morning, I saw a rice pot in my village. I sold my land and ate that land. They said that I had to sell my land. They said that I had to sell my land. They kept the land in a pot and kept it there. They beat me up and beat me up. On the next morning, a farmer was taking me to the river. I told him that I had to sell my land. If not, they would have told us that their family members would have come and brought them in. So, we went there. When we went to see the magistrate, he didn't listen to us or anything. They put it in the shed. It was in the shed for three months. After that, we came out. When we came to our village, we didn't have a place to stay. We didn't have anything to eat. We didn't have a toilet for cooking. We only had a toilet for three months. No one came from there to give us food. We didn't have a place to stay. We didn't have a place to stay. When we decided that we shouldn't stay alive, we came to our village. We showed our face and gave our people the courage to live. We are there for you. We are here to give our communist courage. We are here to give our people the courage to live. We are here to give our old bathrooms and clean them. We are here to help them. We are now getting a solution. The struggle for justice for the Wachati people was based on many friends. The case was fought in the court. Elected representatives raised the issue in parliament and the assembly, activists held protests, rallies and agitations, grabbing media attention and fraternal organizations provided financial support. We used all forms of protest for the Wachati case. It became a people's moment. The All India Democratic Commence Association approached the National SESD Commission and demanded its intervention. Director B. Bhamati immediately visited Wachati and submitted a strong report. Armed with the report, CBI, a member of parliament A-47, filed a red petition in the High Court on September 20, 1992, seeking a thorough inquiry into the brutality. Three years later, Justice Abdulhadi ordered the case to be shifted to the CBI, although the affected people made no such plea after the identification parade was concluded. Advocate Ilango explains the case. Justice B. Bhamati was in charge of the case. CBI was brought to the court and filed a red petition. In that case, the case was decided by the court that the case would be decided by the CBI. Then, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chief Judicial Magistrate came to the court and filed the petition. The affected women were sent to court. Justice B. Vail Murugan of the Madras High Court dismissed all the appeals on September 29, 2023 and upheld the punishment imposed on the accused government servants by the Dharmaburi Sessions Court in 2011. Besides the 54 people who died, the Sessions Court convicted 215 government servants, 4 civil servants, 126 forest department personnel, 84 cops and 5 revenue department officials of which 17 were convicted of rape. The High Court further directed the Sessions Court to immediately secure the custody of all the accused to serve the remaining period of sentence. Justice B. Vail Murugan of the Madras High Court dismissed all the appeals on September 29, 2023 and upheld the punishment imposed on the accused government servants by the Dharmaburi Sessions Court in 2011. In that case, the case was decided by the CBI and upheld the punishment imposed on the accused government servants by the Dharmaburi Sessions Court in 2011. In that case, the case was decided by the CBI that we must bravely fight for justice. It assures us that justice is possible even if the criminals are powerful. After the verdict, people welcomed CPIM and TNTA leaders with arthi and flowers. We are not in that place. This is the reason for the crime. After the crime, we have not given any information to anyone. If we keep our feet inside our village, we will be killed.