Two minor sisters — 13-year-old and nine-year-old — were found dead under mysterious circumstances in their small house in Palakkad district’s Walayar, on January 13 and March 4, 2017, respectively. Five people, including a juvenile, were arrested and charged with various sections, including rape, sexual assault and abetment of suicide. Four of the accused have been acquitted by the court citing that the prosecution did not have enough evidence to prove their guilt. But apart from the case of rape and sexual assault, right from the beginning doubts have been raised whether the deaths were suicides as concluded by police, or cases of homicide.
In the younger girl's case, the court has held that with the available evidence, there was no case of homicide. In the post-mortem report, Dr PB Gujaral, the senior police surgeon, observed that the nine-year-old’s death was by suicide. However, factoring in the age and the height of the girl, he added that it required an investigation to rule out homicidal hanging.
Taking this into account, the First Additional Sessions Judge (Special Judge) of Palakkad court said that none of the witnesses, including the parents, said that the death was a homicide.
“During the investigation, no other reason was found by the investigating officer to say that the girl died other than by way of suicide. None of the prosecution witnesses has a case that the death of the girl is a homicide. No suspectable presence of any person at the time of death of the girl was found in the investigation,” held judge Muralee Krishna S.
However, the judgment does hint that the police had not investigated all aspects of the death thoroughly, but the judge concluded that this in itself was not enough to set aside other evidences that proved that it was a case of suicide. The judgment notes that a broken chair and a wooden cot was found in the room she died and thought the girl could have used any of this to hang to death, this was not clarified by the police.
"It can be gathered that a partly broken chair was also found at the place of occurrence. Wooden cot was also found at the place of occurrence. The girl might have used any of these items to access the rafter for fixing the ligature. The failure on the part of the investigating officer to clarify this point is not a ground to disbelieve the other evidences regarding the death of the girl tendered by the prosecution witnesses. Therefore, from the available evidence it can be concluded that the victim in this case, who is aged only nine years, killed self."
The judgment also shows that the Kerala police had a weak case againt Pradeep as far as the sexual assault and death of the younger sister was concerned. The case was built on two facts: Pradeep, a 32-year-old unemployed man, lived a few metres away from the sisters’ house. He used to give tuition classes for the two girls.
“But there is an absence of any other circumstance to link the accused with the commission of the alleged offences. Therefore, I have no hesitation to hold that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the alleged offences against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. The accused is therefore entitled to be acquitted of the offence charged,” the judge said.
Pradeep has been acquitted of the offences punishable under certain sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Pradeep denied all the incriminating circumstances against him and contended that the investigating officer allegedly manipulated the statements of the witnesses to create evidence against him. He also argued that he was not present in Palakkad at the time of death of the victims.
According to the defence counsel, the accused had a doubt regarding the death of the girls and he suspected homicide. He filed a petition before the Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP) in Cherthala, which prompted the police to allegedly foist a false case against the accused.
Pradeep Kumar was also accused of sexually assaulting the elder sister, who was found dead on January 13, 2017. However, he was acquitted in the case, as it was based on the statements given by three young women who knew the victim. The court ruled that the statements by these women were not fully admissible.
Also read: