Chennai, May 14 -- A local court in Coimbatore on Tuesday sentenced nine men to life imprisonment after finding them guilty in the 2019 Pollachi sexual assault case after multiple women testified against them during the probe. Coimbatore Women's Court judge Nandini Devi pronounced the quantum of sentence as Pollachi was kept under tight security. The court also announced a compensation of Rs.85 lakh for the eight survivors. The nine accused are N Rishwanth alias Sabarirajan (26), K Thirunavukkarasu (28), N Sathish (30), T Vasanthakumar (25), R Manivannan alias Mani (31), K Arulanantham (34), P Babu alias 'Bike' Babu (27), Haronimus Paul (29), and M Arunkumar (29). "They have been convicted on two major offences (376D and 376(2)(n) of the former Indian Penal Code, which pertains to gang rape and repeated rape of the same woman)," public prosecutor Chandramohan told reporters. The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, sexual harassment, rape, gang rape, and extortion, including blackmail, in the series of incidents between 2016 and 2018. The victims were mostly college girls, and the incident came to light after a 19-year-old student lodged a police complaint against four men in February 2019 alleging sexual assault. CBI Special Public Prosecutor Surenda Mohan told reporters that all nine accused were charged with Sections 376 D (gang rape) and 376 (2) (n) (repeated rape on the same woman) of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC) and were convicted by the court and given "life imprisonment till death", as sought by the CBI which probed the matter that had even echoed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Different life terms ranging from one to five were awarded to the convicted men, with Thirunavukkarasu getting the highest of five, he said. The court also awarded the individuals different prison terms ranging between 3-10 years. According to Jisha, special public prosecutor, Mahila Court, Coimbatore, not a single witness in the sensitive case turned hostile and that the anonymity of the victims was protected. During the trial, about eight affected women had deposed. "The Hon'ble Mahila Court gave a judgment in the Pollachi case, which has been a sensitive issue for the past six years and it has found that all the nine accused are guilty," she said. Defence advocate Pandiarajan sought leniency, arguing that the convicts were young and had aged parents. They plan to approach the Madras high court, he said. While the local police initially probed the matter, it was later transferred to CB-CID. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019. Investigating teams spoke to 50 witnesses, and more than 240 documents were presented before the court. The charges were fra- med against them in November 2021. The case became a flashpoint during the 2021 Tamil Nadu assembly elections as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) lost the polls to chief minister MK Stalin's Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Arulanantham, the AIADMK's Pollachi town students' wing secretary, is among the nine who have been found guilty. The AIADMK suspended him after the CBI arrested him in January 2021....