Kerala govt orders CBI inquiry in Walayar rape case

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], January 12 : The Kerala Government on Monday decided to hand over the Walayar case, which is related to the alleged rape and death of two minor Dalit sisters in Palakkad district, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A notification in this regard is expected soon by the state government. The mother of the deceased sisters had requested a CBI investigation saying she has lost faith in the probe by state police.
Earlier, the Kerala High Court had set aside the order of Palakkad Special Court acquitting all the accused in the case and further ordered a re-trial.
Allowing the appeals of the State government and the mother of the victims, a division bench had also ordered the accused to surrender before the trial court on January 20.
Court had given liberty to the prosecution to seek further investigation in the case.
In October 2019, a Special Court at Palakkad had acquitted all four accused--Pradeep Kumar Valiya Madhu, Kutty Madhu and Shibu. One of the four accused, Pradeep Kumar, had died last year in an alleged suicide.
The elder sister, aged 13, was found hanging in her house on January 13, 2017. Within two months, the younger sister, aged 9, was also found hanging in her house on March 4, 2017. As per the postmortem reports, both the girls were subjected to sexual assault. The autopsy report in the case of the younger girl even suggested the possibility of homicidal hanging.