2017 Kerala rape-suicide: CBI names parents of victims in charge sheet
The Central Bureau of Investigation has named the parents of two minor girls, who were found dead at their home in Walayar in 2017 after rape, in a supplementary charge sheet, officials said on Thursday
The Central Bureau of Investigation has named the parents of two minor girls, who were found dead at their home in Walayar in 2017 after rape, in a supplementary charge sheet, officials said on Thursday.
The parents of the Dalit girls have been accused of abetting the suicide, the officials said citing the charge sheet filed in a special CBI court in Kochi.
On January 13, 2017, a 13-year-old girl from the scheduled caste community was found dead at her home near Walayar on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border. On March 4, her nine-year-old sister was found dead at the same spot. Post-mortem examinations of the two girls revealed that they were subjected to rape.
The central agency has charged the parents for failing to disclose to the police that the girls were raped in a timely manner, apart from abetment of suicide and suppression of evidence.
The initial charge sheet filed by the Kerala police said that they died by suicide because of multiple instances of assault. In their final report, four people were named as accused. In 2019, a Pocso court in Palakkad, however, acquitted all four accused, setting off a wave of protests against the police.
In 2021, the Kerala high court set aside the Pocso court verdict and ordered a trial. The case was then transferred to CBI.
The initial CBI charge sheet said that the accused were all relatives of the girls and sexually abused the girls for year, leading to their deaths by suicide. Their mother opposed this charge sheet, telling the court that the agency did not look into a murder angle.
The Walayar Action Council, formed to seek justice for the family of the girls, termed the CBI’s move “an attempt to protect the real accused” in the case. It pointed out that the HC had dismissed the trial court judge’s version of the events in which the parents delayed to inform the police about the sexual assault.
“According to the learned trial judge, after two months only the parents revealed the sexual offence allegedly committed by the accused on the victim. Learned trial judge assumed that it was an afterthought. It is seen from the deposition of these two witnesses that they did not inform the matter to anyone apprehending a blemish on the teenager. Acceptability of this version was not at all considered by the learned trial judge. It is to be borne in mind that the victim’s family members hail from a socially and economically backward background. The way in which they look at their life is also important,” the HC ruling in 2021 had said, the council pointed out.
In a statement on Thursday, the council said, “The CBI chargesheet, by claiming that the parents hid the sexual assault of their daughters, is mocking the HC ruling.”
The mother of the two minor girls told reporters on Thursday, “It is clear that the CBI is afraid of looking for the actual accused in the case. There is pressure on the agency to protect the real accused. That’s why in the final stage the agency has now booked us in the case. We will protest against this move and appeal against it in court.”
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