The four accused persons in the Walayar sisters’ sexual assault and death case should be arrested, the Kerala High Court said on Monday. All four were acquitted by a trial court in October 2019.
The High Court order comes in response to the appeal filed by the Kerala government and the mother of the victims against the acquittal of the accused.
The trial court had acquitted the four accused persons stating that the prosecution could not prove the charges against them. In their appeal, the state government has said that there were major lapses in the investigation as well as the prosecution’s arguments and that really strong evidence against the accused were not even considered.
The mother of the Walayar girls told the media that their demand was to arrest the accused and give them justice. The verdict gives them hope, she said.
It was on January 13, 2017, that the elder of the Walayar girls, aged 13, was found dead in the one-room house she lived in with her parents and sister in Walayar, Palakkad. On March 4, 2017, her little sister, aged nine, was also found dead in the same house. The police had first filed a case of unnatural death for both the girls, under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) 174. Later they added provisions of rape and assault. Both the girls’ medical reports had also suggested sexual assault.
“We feel that this is the first step towards the justice that we have been fighting for,” says professor Kusumam Joseph, who has been one of the activists leading the protest by the Justice for Walayar Kids Forum in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Our first demand is the punishment of DySP Sojan who had led the investigation of the case. We also want all the real culprits punished and those who are influencing them to be brought to light,” Kusumam says. Their strike began on January 3 this year and a satyagraha started on January 22.