The POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act court here, which is trying the sensational Walayar case in which two minor sisters had been found dead in mysterious circumstances more than six years ago, has permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to send the mobile phones of the accused for scientific examination. The CBI investigation team will also send the mobile phone of the victims’ mother for scientific examination.
The court here accorded permission to the CBI on a petition it filed for scientific examination of the mobile phones of the accused as well as the victims’ mother.
However, the court will take a decision on the CBI’s request for subjecting the victims to a lie detection test on October 30.
The CBI team re-investigating the case is seeking out to adduce some mobile related factors to explain the situation that led to the death of the little sisters in the same fashion on different dates.
A fresh CBI team is currently investigating the case after the rejection of the investigations conducted by three other investigators, including the first CBI team.
It was nearly seven years ago that the two sisters of Attappallam aged 13 and nine were found hanging from a raft of their house on different dates. When the 13-year-old girl was found hanging on January 13, 2017, her nine-year-old sister was found dead in the same manner on March 4, 2017.
The post-mortem reports indicated that both girls had been victims of sexual abuse. The police investigation found that the siblings had ended their lives. The case, in which rape and murder were alleged, sparked an outrage and invited national attention when the POCSO court here exonerated all the accused for want of evidence in October 2019.
The victims’ mother, with the support of an action forum formed by Dalit and human rights activists, sought a re-investigation. The CBI took over the case following an order by the High Court in March 2021.
Pradeep Kumar M., one of the five accused in the case, committed suicide on November 4, 2020. He was found hanging in his house at Cherthala.
The POCSO court here, however, rejected the first chargesheet submitted by the CBI, saying that it was a “carbon copy” of the police findings, and ordered a re-investigation by another CBI team.
The victims’ mother is now seeking the removal of K.P. Satheesan as the special public prosecutor in the case. Denying that she had objected to a lie detection test by the CBI, the girls’ mother wrote to the CBI director for the appointment of a lawyer of her choice as the special public prosecutor.
