Vachathi case

The Vachathi case involved a mass crime that occurred on 20 June 1992 in the village of Vachathi, in Dharmapuri district, Tamil Nadu. A team of 155 forest personnel, 108 policemen and six revenue officials entered the Tribal-dominated Vachathi village, searching for smuggled sandalwood and to gather information about Veerappan. Under the pretext of conducting a search, the team ransacked the villagers' property, destroyed their houses, killed their cattle, assaulted around 100 villagers, and raped 18 women.

After a court order, the CBI began probing the case, which was also under the scope of the National Human Rights Commission. On 29 September 2011, a special court in India convicted all 269 accused officials under the SC-ST Prevention of Atrocities act and 17 of those for rape. Fifty-four of the original accused had died by the time of the convictions; the remaining 215 were sentenced to jail.