Published Aug 11, 2022 | 3:49 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 11, 2022 | 3:54 PM
Mother of the two girls at Walayar files nomination in the last Kerala assembly election at Dharmadom, constituency of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, as a mark of protest against flawed investigations. (South First)
The infamous Walayar case of Kerala, which involved the unnatural death of two minor Dalit sisters, took a new turn on Wednesday, 10 August, with a POCSO court in Palakkad rejecting the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and directing that the central agency reinvestigate it thoroughly.
The special court allowed the plea of the mother of the girls, who preferred a re-investigation and said that her daughters were killed by a set of local criminals following brutal rape.
The court also quashed the charge sheet and advised the CBI to conduct an honest and scientific probe into the case, which hit headlines even at the national level because of the passive attitude of the investigators.
The two girls, aged 13 and nine, were found hanging in their single-room hut at Walayar in the Palakkad district on separate days within three months in 2017. Autopsy reports confirmed that they were subjected to brutal rape before their deaths.
Investigation reports claimed that the girls committed suicide out of intolerable pain and agony caused by multiple instances of unnatural sex.
In the beginning, there were five accused in the case, and they included a minor — aged 16. The fourth accused, Pradeep Kumar, allegedly died by suicide in November 2020.
There was seething anger across Kerala when a special POCSO court acquitted three of the arrested people, blaming the prosecution for presenting a weak case devoid of proper evidence.
Women’s rights organisations and activists organised large-scale protests across the state against faulty police investigations and alleged political interference in the case.
The charge sheet filed by the CBI also claimed that the girls died of suicide after finding it difficult to withstand the constant harassment and sexual abuse by the accused. It was identical to the case presented by the Kerala Police in the initial phase.
Challenging this charge sheet, the mother moved to POCSO Court and sought a further investigation into the case. The court allowed this plea and directed the CBI to conduct the reinvestigation.
On the day the elder daughter of the family of daily-wage labourers was found hanging inside the hut at Walayar, suspicions arose about the cause of her death as her nine-year-old sibling testified to the police that she had seen two masked men running away from the house, presumably after murdering her sister.
Though the local police immediately arrested a youth from the locality on suspicion, he was let off the same day for want of evidence.
The police chose to ignore the case in the subsequent days due to reasons known best to them. It seems they deliberately slow-pedalled the probe despite the autopsy finding that precise shreds of evidence of “multiple sexual assaults including unnatural sexual abuses” on the body.
Fifty-six days went by without any attempt to unravel the mystery around the death when the village found the second girl hanging from the ceiling.
There were more questions around her death, as there was no explanation on how she could have possibly hung herself from the ceiling given her short stature. Once again, the autopsy confirmed multiple sexual assaults.
Jolted into action, the police within two months arrested five people, including the aforementioned juvenile, from the locality amidst allegations of improper investigation.
The arrested included a close relative of the mother of the children, and the arrests were made amid widespread anger and anguish over allegations of the botched handling of the case.
In the meantime, another suspect — Pradeep Kumar — summoned for interrogation was found hanging on a tree at a desert spot.
“If there was a proper investigation into the elder girl’s death, the second girl’s life might have been saved. Only the police are responsible for the death of the younger sibling. After all, she was the sole witness in the first case,” pointed out social activist Bobban Mattumantha.
