Walayar case Kerala HC seeks CBI stand on plea challenging chargesheets against parents

Kochi, Mar 24 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Monday sought CBI's stand on a petition challenging its chargesheets against the parents of two minor Dalit girls who were raped and later found dead in Walayar near Palakkad in 2017.


Justice C Jayachandran issued notice to the CBI on the parents pleas seeking quashing of the chargesheets in which they have been arraigned as accused.



The parents also sought an investigation into the homicidal angle in connection with their daughters' deaths.



The central agency has completed their investigation into the case and has filed six charge sheets.



In the charge sheets filed earlier this month they have arraigned parents of the victims as the accused on charges under Section 16, 17 (abetment) of the POCSO Act, IPC Sections 109 (abetment) r/w Section 376(2)(f)(i)(n) (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 201 (causing disappearance of the offence) and Section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.



The petitioners approached the court seeking to quash all the six charge sheets filed against them.



The sisters aged 13 and nine were found hanging in their one-room thatched house in a gap of around 50 days on January 13 and March 4, 2017.



The children were allegedly found to have suffered sexual assault. Five accused in the case were earlier acquitted.



Later, a CBI probe was ordered considering the mother's demand. The agency also concluded that the sisters ended life by hanging owing to trauma over harassments.

The court ordered further probe by the CBI to look into any murder angle.



The petitioners alleged that the investigating agency has no definite conclusion about the manner of death as to whether it is a homicide or suicide.



The petitioners have been arrayed as the accused not on the logical grounds. Merely based on some witness statements having no credibility, the investigating officer has reached the conclusion that the petitioners have committed the offences, according to the plea.



The relationship between the petitioners and the accused is presented with exaggeration and embroidery, it alleged.



The petition also stated that no investigation has been conducted into the suspicious deaths of the accused persons- Pradeep and Madhu alias Kutti Madhu, and a suspect, John Praveen.



The investigating agency is trying to end the matter as a suicide case. Throughout the inquiry, they had picked out some materials to write off a heinous crime only as a suicide case, the petition alleged.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)