Walayar POCSO Case: CBI charges parents with abetment of rape

Kochi (Kerala) [India], January 10 : The CBI has filed a chargesheet against the parents in the Walayar case, accusing them of abetment to rape. The chargesheet was submitted before the Ernakulam CBI court.
The charges have been formally filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, as well as relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In particular, the accused are facing serious allegations of abetment to rape, which falls under Section 109 of the IPC.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted a comprehensive chargesheet encompassing a total of six separate cases linked to these offences.
Last year, the High Court ordered the transfer of the Walayar case, in which two minor sisters were found dead in their home in 2017 after allegedly being sexually assaulted, from the Palakkad POCSO Court to the CBI court in Ernakulam.
The order was passed in response to a petition filed by the CBI seeking to move the trial from the Special Court for POCSO cases in Palakkad to the Ernakulam CBI Court.
On January 7, 2017, a 13-year-old girl was found hanging at her residence in Attappallam. Subsequently, on March 4, 2017, her nine-year-old sister was also found hanging in the same house. A special investigation team, led by Palakkad ASP G Poonguzhali IPS, was constituted on March 6, 2017, to probe the death of Sisters.
The post-mortem report on March 12, 2017, revealed that both Sisters had been victims of sexual assault. On June 22, 2019, the police submitted a chargesheet concluding that the deaths were suicides. The first verdict in the case came on October 9, 2019, acquitting Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Cherthala, due to lack of evidence. On October 25, 2019, the court decisively acquitted the other accused: Shibu, M Madhu, and V Madhu.