The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit a sealed cover report on its ongoing investigation into the 2017 Walayar rape case, which involved the rape and possible murder of two minor Dalit sisters in Palakkad district.
The order was passed by Single-judge Justice K Babu while considering a petition moved by the mother of one of the minor victims seeking monitoring of the investigation.
According to the mother, the CBI has been ignoring material evidence in the case that points to homicide rather than suicide.
The petition moved by her through her advocate PV Jeevesh emphasised that the trial court had also observed callous indifference and negligence on the part of the CBI in conducting the investigation.
Furthermore, it was claimed that the CBI is rushing to submit the final report without conducting the investigation properly and efficiently.
The petition stated, “The deceased girls belong to the Scheduled Cast (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, a marginalized section of society. They are helpless to learn the truth behind the incident. Therefore, the intervention of this Hon’ble Court is a sine qua non for doing complete justice.”
Therefore, the petition urged the Court to monitor the CBI investigation and direct the agency to look into homicidal angles in the victims’ deaths, the suspicious death of two people accused in the case, and the involvement of the child pornography mafia in the victims’ deaths.
What is Walayar rape case?
In January 2017, the older of the two sisters involved in the tragic incident, aged 13, was discovered hanging inside her Walayar home by her younger sister, aged 9.
The 9-year-old told police she saw two men leave the house that day, and her parents claimed their daughter was murdered. However, the police registered a case of an unnatural death.
Shockingly, the younger 9-year-old sister was found hanging in the same house 52 days later, in March 2017.
Protests and public pressure resulted in the arrest of five accused in the case: Madhu alias Valiya Madhu, Madhu M alias Kutti Madhu Shibu, Pradeep Kumar M, and a minor who was 16 at the time of the alleged offence. Pradeep Kumar, the fourth accused, allegedly committed suicide in November 2020.
The girls’ post-mortem reports revealed that they had been raped prior to their deaths. The police concluded that they committed suicide as a result of the trauma caused by the accused’s multiple sexual assaults on them.
The family of the victim girls, on the other hand, was vehemently opposed to this theory.
On October 25, 2019, a court under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act acquitted V Madhu, M Madhu, and Shibu due to a lack of evidence. Pradeep Kumar had previously been acquitted by the court for the same reason.
This sparked widespread public outrage, protests, and accusations, particularly from opposition parties, against the CPI(M)-led LDF government, which was accused of shielding the accused.
Following that, the State government filed an appeal against the POCSO court’s verdict, requesting that the High Court order the release of the case records, set aside the lower court’s judgement, and convict the accused for the offences, or order a reinvestigation into the crime.
The girl’s mother, with the support of a Dalit and human rights activist organization, also approached the government, requesting a re-investigation. She urged the High Court to order a CBI investigation as well.
In January 2021, a division bench of the Kerala High Court comprised of Justices A Hariprasad (now retired) and MR Anitha quashed all of the accused men’s acquittals and directed a retrial in all of the cases.
Following consideration of the State government’s recommendation for a CBI investigation, the Court ordered the central agency to take up the investigation.
By this time, the protests against inaction had reached a fever pitch by this point, with multiple dharnas, satyagrahas, and hunger strikes organised by family and social welfare organisations.
On January 20, 2022, the court dismissed the prime accused’s bail applications, saying that he could seek bail from the trial court based on the CBI’s final report.
