Kochi, Jan 9 (PTI) In a major development in the 2017 Walayar rape case, the CBI has filed chargesheets against the parents of the two girls who were allegedly sexually assaulted and were found dead later.
As many as six supplementary chargesheets were filed before the Ernakulam CBI court in Kochi in the case, charging the parents for the offence of abetment of suicide under the IPC and various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, official sources said.
In all six charge sheets, the parents of the victims were also accused of not reporting the rape incident to the authorities, the sources added.
The girls were found dead under mysterious circumstances in their hut within a span of nearly two months after their alleged sexual assault in 2017.
The eldest of the siblings, aged 13, was found hanging inside their hut on January 13, 2017 and her nine-year old sister died on March 4, in the same manner.
Though the mother had alleged that it was a case of murder, the police concluded that the girls were sexually abused in an unnatural way by five persons including a juvenile for nearly one year till they were forced to die by suicide, by the accused by trespassing into their dwelling.
Allowing appeals filed by the state government and the mother of the children, the High Court ordered a retrial in the case in January 2021, observing that there were “serious lapses” in the investigation and that there had been “miscarriage of justice”.
The High Court had also set aside an October 2019 order of the special court under the POCSO Act acquitting the five accused for want of evidence.
Protests had erupted in the state after the acquittal of the accused, seeking justice for the family of the girls.
The LDF government had handed over to CBI the probe into the death of the two sisters shortly after the Kerala High Court ordered a retrial in the sensational case.
However, a chargesheet, submitted by the CBI before the POCSO court in December 2021, also said that the girls had died by suicide after they were sexually assaulted.
The chargesheet filed by the agency in the Ernakulam CBI court in the Walayar murder case is intended to protect the real culprits in the case and harass the parents who are fighting for justice, Walayar Neethi Samara Samiti, a collective of activists fighting for the justice of the victims, has alleged. PTI ARM ARM ROH
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