Court orders fresh probe into sisters’ deaths

PALAKKAD: Finally the prayers of a tribal mother who lost two of her daughters in a year, when they ended their lives ater being sexually assaulted, have been heard.

The special POCSO (Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences) court here ordered for further investigation into the sensational Walayar sexual assault case. Superintendent of Police R Nishanthini, who was appointed as head of the special investigation team inquiring the case, had approached the court seeking permission for fresh investigation into the case.

On the other day, the court had extended the custody period of the accused V Madhu and Shibu till Feb.15.

Madhu, another accused in the case obtained bail from High Court.

The trial court initiated further proceedings in the case ater the High Court issued an order for a retrial.

The case originated in January 2007, when a 13-year-old tribal girl ended her life by hanging in her house at Walayar in the district. In the same year, her 9-year-old sister was also found dead in similar circumstances. The prosecution’s case is that the two minor girls had died by suicide due to repeated sexual harassment by the accused.

The girls, aged 13 and nine, were found dead inside their home 52 days apart. The 13-year-old was found dead on Jan.13, 2017, and the younger child, aged nine, died 52 days later on March 4.

In 2019, the court acquited the accused, all men in the neighbourhood of the victims, claiming the prosecution failed to prove charges against them. Later, the mother of the victims approached the High Court seeking justice in the case.

As lapses of prosecution triggered controversy, the government also moved an appeal in the case. Following this, a division bench of the High Court set aside the verdict of the POCSO court acquiting all the accused in the case and ordered for retrial.

Ater a trial court acquited the three persons alleged to be responsible for their deaths, the government and the police had come under withering criticism from across the social and political spectrum for “sabotaging” the investigation and subsequent prosecution to save the accused.