The Kerala High Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit before it a detailed report of its probe into the mysterious death of two young sisters at their hut in Walayar in a span of nearly two months in 2017.
Justice K Babu, in an interim order, directed the agency to place before it in a sealed cover, the details of the probe, as sought by the mother of the deceased sisters.
The HC order came on a writ petition filed by the mother, through lawyer P V Jeevesh, who sought for a court-monitored investigation.
The plea stated that the deceased girls belong to the marginalised section of the society and their families are helpless to find out the truth behind the incident and sought for the court-monitored probe.
The petition alleged that from the initial stage itself, there were calculated and deliberate attempts on the part of the investigating agency (CBI) to sabotage the investigation.
“The petitioner suspects that the investigating agency is acting under the influence of somebody. The investigation is going in a sloppy, defective and in an improper manner,” the plea said.
It also said that the central agency was acting with mala fides and was abusing its powers of investigation.
The two teenage girls, hailing from Walayar in Palakkad, were found hanging inside their house after alleged sexual assault in 2017. The eldest of the siblings aged 13 was found hanging inside their hut on January 13, 2017 and her nine-year old sister had died on March 4 that year in the same manner.
Though the mother had alleged that it was a case of murder, Walayar police came to the conclusion that the girls were sexually abused in an unnatural way by five persons, including a juvenile, for nearly one year till they died by suicide.
Allowing appeals filed by the state government and the mother of the children, the High Court had ordered a retrial in the case in January 2021, observing that there were “serious lapses” in the investigation and that there had been “miscarriage of justice”.
The High Court had also set aside an October 2019 order of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court acquitting the five accused for want of evidence.
Public outcry and protests had erupted in the state after the acquittal of the accused as they sought justice for the family of the deceased girls.
The LDF government had handed over the probe to the CBI shortly after the High Court ordered a retrial in the sensational case.
However, a charge sheet, submitted by the CBI before the POCSO court here in December 2021, also stated that the girls had died by suicide after they were sexually assaulted.
