Kerala

Walayar sisters death: Parents seek CBI inquiry after state 'failed' them

'The government always says that they are with us, but no action so far,' the parents wrote in their petition to the Kerala CM.

Written by : TNM Staff

The parents of the Walayar sisters, who died under mysterious circumstances in 2017, met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry into the case. They submitted a petition to the CM’s office in the Government Secratariat in Thiruvananthapuram.

In the petition, the parents alleged that though CM had promised justice for their daughters, it was broken in 2019 when all the accused in the case were acquitted. It is also stated that if the police had inquired into the older child's death properly, the death of the second child could have been avoided.
 
The parents alleged that police never tried to investigate the possibility of their second child being murdered, even though the post-mortem suggested she was raped and then murdered. The parents also said that most of the prime witnesses did not appear before the trial court. The petition further mentioned that police hurried in conducting the funeral of the children.

Citing all these reasons, the parents alleged that the investigation into their daughters’ deaths by Kerala government agencies was a “complete failure”.

"We demand a CBI enquiry. The government always says that they are with us, but no action so far. So if we want to believe that strict action should be taken against whoever tried to sabotage the case," the children's mother told the media after meeting the CM.

The parents met the CM a day after the Kerala High Court ordered a retrial in the sensational case. A division bench, comprising Justices A Hariprasad and M R Anitha, ordered a retrial considering the appeals filed by the state government and the mother of the children. It also set aside a special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court order acquitting five accused in the case.

The HC also noted that there were serious lapses in the investigation of the case from the beginning.

In January 2017, the elder sister, who was 13, was found dead inside the family’s shed in Walayar. Two months later, in March, the younger 9-year-old sister was found dead in the same place.

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