E-Paper
Judicial probe to be held in Kerala minor girls’ death
The Left Front government of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan appointed retired judge S Haneefa as the head of the judicial inquiry team and asked it to submit a report as soon as possible, the government said.
The Kerala government on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into the rape and death of two minor siblings almost three years ago, a day after moving the high court to reinvestigate and retry the case, in the face of criticism for staying silent on the acquittal of four people, all of them activists of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), accused of raping and murdering them.
The Left Front government of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan appointed retired judge S Haneefa as the head of the judicial inquiry team and asked it to submit a report as soon as possible, the government said. The team will probe lapses on the part of the police, prosecutor and others.
The mother of the siblings said she will go ahead with her plea for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe of the rape and deaths. She filed a petition in the high court two days ago.
Autopsy reports had found that the girls, aged 12 and 7 years, were subjected to sexual assault, The elder died on January 13, 2017 and the younger one 52 days later in Wayalar in Palakkad.
Last month, a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) court set free the four accused in the case, triggering statewide protests and candle light vigils.
In its appeal in the high court, the state government admitted for the first time that there had been grave lapses in the investigation and trial that led to the acquittal of all four suspects.
The mother of the minor girls alleged that one of her relatives used to frequent the house when the family’s elders were out for work and they had warned him off when they came to know about a sexual assault on the older daughter. She alleged that he and his friends continued to abuse the girl, and she had told the police about it when she died.
No action was taken against the man, which led to the second girl’s death, the mother alleged. The younger sibling was found hanging from a height of 10 feet when there was no stool or chair she could have used to fasten the rope above.
The opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have alleged that the government weakened the case against the suspects on purpose to save them because they were CPI (M) activists.
