Kerala govt forms new police team to re-investigate Walayar case

The HC in its recent order observed that lapses in the previous investigation by police had resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
Protest
Protest
Written by:

The Kerala government on Tuesday announced that the sensational Walayar case of 2017 will be investigated again by a special team of state police led by IPS officer Nishanthini (Superintendent of Police, Railways). This comes after the Kerala High Court had recently ordered a retrial in the case. The case involves the death of two minor sisters in 2017, and they were allegedly sexual assaulted as well. The eldest of the siblings, aged 13, was found hanging inside their hut in Walayar in Palakkad district on January 13, 2017 and the younger sister (9) on March 4, the same year.

It was reported last week that the Kerala government had decided to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. This decision to hand over the case to the CBI was made based on the request of the victim’s family members. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also instructed Additional Chief Secretary (Home and Vigilance) to communicate with the union government and make a formal request for the same.

The HC, in its recent order, had observed that lapses in the investigation by the police had resulted in miscarriage of justice. 

The HC division bench of Justices A Hariprasad and MR Anitha had also set aside a October 2019 order of POCSO (Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court acquitting the five accused in the case for want of evidence.

There were widespread protests and public outcry after the accused were let go by the trial court. 

The state government had removed the Public Prosecutor who handled the case and later filed the appeal in the high court in November 2018.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com