In 2017, two girls, aged nine and 13, were found dead inside their house in Kerala’s Walayar, 52 days apart. The autopsies revealed that they had been sexually assaulted. While the mother claims they were murdered, the police and CBI say that the girls killed themselves
After the accused in the rape and death of the two sisters in Kerala’s Walayar were acquitted, massive protests erupted in the state. PTI
The death of two minor Dalit sisters in Kerala’s town of Walayar sent shockwaves throughout the country in 2017. The autopsies confirmed they have been sexually assaulted, leading to a massive uproar in the state. Now five years later, justice continues to elude the family.
There was an investigation and a trial, which was followed by the acquittal of the accused. However, following appeals by the mother of the two girls – aged nine and 13 – and the state government, the Kerala High Court ordered a retrial in January 2021. The government handed the case to the CBI, which has now been asked to re-investigate the matter.
What is the case? Why has the CBI been asked to further probe the matter? We answer the questions.
The horrific killings in 2017
On 13 January, the 13-year-old girl was found hanging in the family one-room house in Walayar by her younger sibling. She told the police that she saw two men with faces covered leaving.
A case of unnatural death was registered, even though the parents of the girl claimed that she was murdered.
The tragedy did not end there. Fifty-two days later, on 4 March, the nine-year-old was found dead – hanging in the house like her elder sister.
After the family and residents of Walayar protested, the police arrested five persons including a juvenile. The autopsies conducted on the bodies of the minor girls revealed that they were sexually assaulted before their deaths.
The accused were charged with rape and abetting suicide under the POSCO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.
However, the mother of the girls continued to insist that they were murdered. “I don’t believe my daughters took their own lives. They don’t have the intelligence to do such a thing. They are not tall enough to kill themselves like that. They were killed,” she told iemalayalam.com in late 2019.
She had said that the younger daughter was murdered because she was an eye-witness and had seen two men walking out of the house when the older girl was found dead.
The court cases and acquittals
The Palakkad Special Court acquitted all four accused in the case — V Madhu, M Madhu, Pradeep Kumar, and a juvenile boy.
In the September 2019 judgment, the judge said that there was not enough evidence against the accused Pradeep Kumar, who lived near the family.
The court found out that there was a contradiction in the statements of the witnesses. A statement by one of the witnesses in court that the accused had given the older minor a cell phone to click his nude pictures was not found in her police statement, reports The Indian Express.
Saying that the prosecution had failed to prove the alleged offences against the accused, he was acquitted.
In October 2019, the three other accused were also acquitted.
The POSCO court has now asked the CBI to re-investigate the case. The mother of the two vicitms claims that they were murdered. PTI
The protests
This decision by the POSCO court led to protests across the state, which saw the participation of both political and non-political parties. Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and even the Communist Party of India (CPI), which is a member of the ruling LDF government in Kerala participated in the demonstrations.
The matter reached the state Assembly with the Opposition hitting out at the government over the police’s handling of the case. The state replaced N Rajesh, the chairman of the Child Welfare Committee in Palakkad, for appearing as a lawyer for one of the accused, reports The Indian Express.
The family of the two girls and the Opposition demanded a CBI probe.
An accused in the case, Pradeep Kumar, was found dead inside his home in Alappuzha last November. According to the police, he died by suicide.
The Kerala High Court ordered a retrial in the case and the government handed over the probe to the CBI. It stared the investigation in early 2021.
The CBI probe
The CBI charge sheet filed before the POSCO court in December 2021 said that the three main accused had sexually abused and assaulted the girls for years, leading to their suicides. It reiterated the police’s findings that the victims killed themselves.
However, the mother has opposed the charge sheet and said that the probe agency has not investigated the angle that the girls were murdered.
Now the POSCO Court in Palakkad has rejected the charge sheet filed by the CBI and ordered a reinvestigation into the matter.
According to the mother, the CBI charge sheet is similar to the one filed by the Kerala Police. “Happy on the verdict. Court has rejected the police charge sheet as well as the CBI charge sheet. We met the CBI team and told them that our daughters were murdered. But they did not listen,” she said, according to news agency ANI.
“Our demand is that the officers who are investigating the case should again probe it sincerely,” she added.
With inputs from agencies
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