In Tamil Nadu, Dharmapuri District Session Court has convicted 215 accused persons in a rape case. The District and Principal Sessions Judge, Justice S. Kumaraguru pronounced the judgement in the Vachathi case on Thursday. The sentence comes nearly two decades after the forest, police and revenue officials allegedly committed atrocities on Vachathi villagers. The judge convicted 126 forest personnel including four IFS officers, 84 policemen and five officials.Out of the seventeen who were convicted of rape charges, 11 of them were given 10 years rigorous imprisonment. The remaining were awarded seven years imprisonment. Some of the accused convicted of other charges, were awarded upto three years jail term.The Madras High Court directed the Dharmapuri District Court to conduct the case on day-to-day basis in June this year. The officials had allegedly entered a tribal village Vachathi in Dharmapuri district for conducting a search for smuggled sandalwood on 26th June, 1992. During the operations, they were alleged to have ransacked the property of the villagers, detained women and children and also committed atrocities. It is to be noted that 54 of the accused in the case are already dead.