Trigger warning: Mentions of child abuse, sexual assault, self harm, and suicide
In the quiet village of Selvapuram, nestled along the Walayar stretch of National Highway 544 in Kerala, two minor Dalit girls were found dead within 52 days of each other in early 2017. The girls were 13 and 9 years old respectively, and their deaths were recorded as suicides. The post mortem reports showed that the girls had been sexually assaulted multiple times over a long period of time. The police arrested five people — four adults and a minor, all known to the family, all friends and neighbours and relatives.
Even as questions were raised about whether children that young could attempt suicide, the story of the Walayar girls became emblematic of a broken justice system.
What followed was a botched investigation by the Kerala police, an acquittal of all four adult accused by a court in 2019, and years of protests led by the girls’ mother, Lakshmi (name changed). The case, riddled with inconsistencies and allegations of police negligence, was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). After two separate probes, the CBI’s latest reports have included two more people to the list of accused — Lakshmi and her husband Biju (name changed).
The agency has accused the parents of ‘wilful negligence’, thereby abetting the crimes against their children. Lakshmi allegedly failed to report the abuse despite her daughters hinting at it. But the CBI report doesn't just add sections for abetment against the parents, which, under the Prevention of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, attracts the same punishment as the crime itself. They are also charged under Section 109 of the IPC (abetment) read with Sections 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural sex) of the IPC. This means that Section 109 will be interpreted in conjunction with Sections 376 and 377 to fully understand the legal implications of the offences.
The case is now being heard by a CBI court in Ernakulam, but the focus has shifted from the pursuit of justice for two dead children, to a scrutiny of the mother.
“I am not afraid,” Lakshmi says, as we meet her about a month after the CBI filed its chargesheet. “If my children will get justice by me going to jail, then so be it.”
A kilometre or so from the Attapalam bus stop, on the Walayar stretch of National Highway 544, lies Selvapuram — a quiet village edged by green paddy fields. As we travelled further in, the lush landscape gave way to rocky terrain, the vegetation thinning out as we approached the home of Lakshmi, the mother of the Walayar girls. The simple plot of land held two structures: a small, tin-roofed shed — once the only home for the family of five — and a newer, pucca house beside it. It was inside this shed that two minor Dalit sisters, aged 13 and 9, were found dead within 52 days of each other in early 2017.
Until then, Walayar, a border town between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, was known only for its interstate checkposts and irrigation reservoir. But in March 2017, the death of the younger girl, less than two months after her sister’s death, catapulted the town into the national spotlight. Soon, Walayar became synonymous with the two dead sisters.
The post-mortem report of the elder girl, who died first, suggested the possibility of sexual assault, with the doctor verbally informing the police that she may have been subjected to anal rape — an angle that was never investigated. The second girl’s post-mortem, however, left little room for doubt, clearly stating that evidence pointed to “multiple episodes of anal penetration.”
According to the initial chargesheet filed by Kerala police in 2018, the girls died by suicide, due to the “intolerable pain and agony caused by the multiple instances of unnatural sex committed on them by the accused.” Five persons, including a minor, were booked and charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The accused were disturbingly close to the family. Valiya Madhu is Lakshmi’s first cousin, her father’s brother’s son; Kutty Madhu her nephew, her sister’s son. Shibu is a construction worker who worked with Lakshmi and Biju. He had been staying with the family in the single-room shed when the sisters died. Pradeep, who was unemployed, lived less than 100 m away from them, and used to offer tuition classes for the deceased girls when his wife was away at work. The fifth accused, a juvenile in conflict with law, was 16 years old when the sisters died. He, too, was a distant relative and a neighbour of the family.
Kutty Madhu and Pradeep have since died, both allegedly by suicide. Pradeep was found dead at his home on November 4, 2020, over a year after he was acquitted. Kutty Madhu was found dead on October 25, 2023, four years after he was acquitted by the trial court.
The Kerala police investigation, which ruled out murder, was far from satisfactory. The basics of scientific evidence collection were flouted in the initial stages, making the prosecution’s case weak. In October 2019, the Special POCSO Court in Palakkad acquitted all four adults accused in the case. The judge noted that the “prosecution failed miserably to prove the offence.” The juvenile accused was booked in the case and given bail soon after. The trial in his case has not started.
Lakshmi’s protests would go on for years. An action council, formed by civil society members and activists, rallied behind her.
In January 2021, the Kerala High Court set aside the POCSO court’s judgement and ordered a retrial in the case. The Kerala government agreed to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same month.
Lakshmi’s protests did not cease — demanding not just a CBI probe but also action against the police officers who botched the initial investigation.
The Thiruvananthapuram unit of the CBI took charge in April 2021, registering two separate First Information Reports (FIRs) under the POCSO Act a year later. Notably, in its charge sheet filed in May 2022, the CBI stated that the sisters died by suicide due to continuous harassment and sexual abuse by the accused, aligning with the initial findings of the Kerala police.
Frustrated by what she saw as a rehash of the same flawed conclusions, Lakshmi challenged the charge sheet in the Palakkad POCSO court, demanding further investigation. She staunchly believed that her younger daughter was murdered. The court dismissed the CBI’s findings in September 2022, calling the report “old wine in a new bottle.” The order scathingly noted, “This is a case where there was no investigation at all, much less any fair and proper investigation... The CBI has merely reiterated the findings in the final report laid by the local police.”
The POCSO court ordered the CBI to conduct a second probe. By August 2024, the case was transferred to a CBI court in Ernakulam.
On Wednesday, March 5, the CBI court heard the investigators’ plea to arraign Lakshmi and Biju in the three cases. The court will consider whether further investigation into these should be allowed on March 25.
From her home in Selvapuram, Lakshmi took us to Kallankad, where her relatives — including Valiya Madhu, one of the accused — live. It was a short, 20-minute walk, first through rocky, dry terrain, and then along a road lined with paddy fields on either side. Most of the houses in the rocky part were newly built — the area had few homes at the time of the girls' deaths.
At the entrance to the lane leading to Valiya Madhu’s house stood a flagpole bearing the red flag of the CPI(M), of which Madhu was a member. The narrow lane opened into a cluster of about 20 houses, home mostly to members of the Cherumar community (Scheduled Caste), many of whom are related by blood. The residents are primarily daily wage workers, farm labourers, or factory employees.
The third house in the row belonged to Sarojini, Lakshmi's late mother. It was a small, one-room house, locked since her death almost a year ago. Within the same compound stood another house — the houses were so close together that they could easily be mistaken for a single structure. This is where Valiya Madhu lived. From their doorstep, an expansive paddy field stretched out, with Kutty Madhu’s house visible in the distance.
Until their deaths, the children used to go to their grandmother Sarojini's house after school, where they would wait until 6.30 or 7 pm, when their parents returned from work. During this time, they were allegedly repeatedly sexually assaulted by Valiya Madhu and Kutty Madhu.
“The CBI says I left my children in Kallankad, but they don’t mention that I left them with my mother,” Lakshmi told us. “My husband and I worked every day — what else could we do? I wasn’t intentionally sending them to Madhu’s house but to my mother’s, and the houses are so close, they could be the same. What option did I have?”
The two girls had initially attended a school in Thrissur, where they lived at a convent. “When my eldest daughter started menstruating, she hadn’t even turned 11. She would have severe pain during her periods, so a nun at the convent suggested I take her home for a year or two,” Lakshmi recalled. “Mid-2015, I transferred her to a school near home, and brought my younger one along with her.”
“They stayed with us for just over a year before they died. I regret that decision now,” she said.
After the first girl died, Lakshmi and Biju stayed at home without going to work for 42 days, in keeping with their ritual practices.
The CBI accuses Biju – stepfather to the first girl, biological father of the younger girl and boy – of burning the elder girl’s clothes after her death.
“Yes, we burned them,” Lakshmi admitted. “When we went to Kalpathi for her last rites, the temple priest told us to burn her clothes. We didn’t know we weren’t supposed to do that by law. When the younger one died, we didn’t do it.”
When they started going to work after the mourning period, Lakshmi put her mother Sarojini in charge of both her second daughter and son, who was around seven years old at the time.
“How long could we survive without work?” Lakshmi asked. “We had my mother stay at home with the children, and if she needed to go somewhere, she was supposed to take both of them with her. I must have told her so many times to be careful.”
But on March 4, the day the second child died, Sarojini allegedly took just the boy with her when she went out to graze the goats, leaving the nine-year-old girl alone at home.
Lakshmi returned from work that evening to find her second daughter dead.
“If my mother left my daughter alone that day despite all my warnings, didn’t she do it intentionally? Maybe she had done it many times before,” Lakshmi said bitterly.
When she confronted Sarojini after the second girl’s death, the older woman was defensive. “She told me, ‘I wasn’t paid to take care of your children,’” Lakshmi recalled. “If she had a problem, she should have told me. After that, I asked her to leave my house and never spoke to her again.”
Lakshmi said she cut ties with her family after her daughters’ deaths. “My mother said, ‘Those who are dead are gone forever — why disturb the living?’ They all supported Madhu,” she added.
Sudha, a distant relative of Lakshmi, shared a similar account but with one added detail. “Sarojini came home that day with her cheeks swollen. She said Lakshmi had hit her badly,” Sudha said. “Lakshmi never came here again — not even when Sarojini died.” A CPI(M) worker, Sudha was the panchayat ward member at the time of the children’s deaths.
In January this year, the CBI submitted three separate chargesheets against V Madhu (aka Valiya Madhu), Shibu, and the juvenile in conflict with the law. While the three are the prime accused in one charge sheet each, Lakshmi and Biju have been listed as the second and third accused in all of them.
The parents have been charged under Section 17, read with Section 16 of the POCSO Act (abetment and instigation); along with Sections 109 (abetment of rape of a minor by a relative or guardian) read with 376 (2) (f), (i), (n) (rape of a minor under 16 and repeated rape) of the IPC. Also 109 read with the sections 377 (unnatural sex) of the IPC and Section 75 (cruelty to children) of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act.
Valiya Madhu and Shibu have been charged with multiple offences under IPC, the JJ Act, and the POCSO Act. The charges include Sections 376(2)(i), (n) (rape of minor under 16 and repeated rape); 377 (unnatural sex); 305 (abetment of suicide); and 354 (assault on a woman). Additionally, they have been booked under Section 75 of the JJ Act (cruelty to children) and Sections 5, 6, 9, and 10 of the POCSO Act, which pertain to aggravated sexual assault.
According to the CBI, Lakshmi and Biju were aware that the younger child was abused by the juvenile accused and Valiya Madhu. The CBI has accused them of “willful negligence” in protecting their children.
Lakshmi is specifically charged with abetting the crime by failing to report it to the police, despite the children hinting to her about the abuse. Another allegation against her is that she continued sending the children to Kallankad, despite knowing that Madhu, who had previously abused them, lived there. However, it also notes that elder girl was afraid of her mother and was unable to confide in her about any sexual abuse or difficulties she faced.
In addition to the rape charges, Valiya Madhu has been charged under Section 450 of the IPC (trespassing to commit a crime). This is a direct contradiction of the CBI’s allegation that the parents allowed Madhu free access to the house.
In the eight years since her daughters’ deaths, Lakshmi has become a symbol of protest and resistance. She has staged multiple demonstrations across Kerala, including outside the state Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. In 2021, she shaved her head and undertook a ‘Neethi Yatra’ — a justice march — from one end of the state to the other, demanding action against the police officers who botched the initial investigation. That same year, when Kerala went to the polls, she contested against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Dharmadam, Kannur.
“The government posted two policemen outside my house after I contested against Pinarayi Vijayan,” she told us. Currently, only one officer remains stationed there at all time
Lakshmi's life has been marked by tragedy long before the deaths of her daughters. When she was just 13, her sisters — aged 17 and 11 — died suddenly on the same night. “I remember being woken up when their trembling feet touched my face. They died within minutes,” she recalled.
The CBI chargesheet records that her sisters died of poisoning, but the local police investigation at the time went no further. It was concluded that they might have died from a snake bite. Lakshmi's sisters’ deaths are mentioned several times in the CBI report.
Her relatives in Kallankad also didn’t seem to think much of it. “We had heard back then that they died of fright after seeing something,” they told us.
Sudha, a distant relative of Lakshmi and a former CPI(M) panchayat ward member, did not hold back on her personal criticisms. She questioned Lakshmi’s character, accusing her of drinking alcohol and “bringing men to the house.”
The CBI charge sheet devotes significant space to such claims about the mother’s ‘moral lapses’, questioning the mother's character.
But beyond the moralistic comments, there are definitely some questions for the mother to answer.
Lakshmi’s phone contained 200 pornographic videos, which, the CBI alleges, the children may have been exposed to. Lakshmi denied possessing such videos.
The charge sheet also quotes witnesses who alleged that several men frequently visited Lakshmi’s house to consume alcohol. The CBI has linked this to what it describes as "free access to the children" for the accused.
One disturbing allegation in the chargesheet is that Lakshmi, Biju, and Valiya Madhu once drank alcohol together in the shed, after which “they” engaged in sexual activity in front of the children. The report, however, does not clearly specify who participated in the alleged act. Lakshmi has firmly denied this claim.
Despite these allegations, the charge sheet fails to explain why the parents have been charged with rape.
Salil Lal Ahamed, a leader of the Walayar Action Council, pointed out that the chargesheets primarily focused on the mother's morality. “There is very little mention of the prime accused in the chargesheets. They wanted to frame the parents for various reasons,” he alleged.
In Salil’s view, the CBI hopes to suppress further protests by implicating the parents. “In its initial report, the CBI did not find anything substantial. Following protests and appeals, they had to take up the case again. This time, they wanted to silence us. We were planning a massive protest, but by accusing the parents, they have completely shut it down,” he said.
A major allegation levelled against Lakshmi and Biju in the latest chargesheets is that they did not report the crime or take preventive steps even though they were aware that the elder girl was being sexually assaulted.
The CBI alleges that in 2016, Lakshmi saw Valiya Madhu “outraging the modesty” of the girls. In the same year, Biju is accused of witnessing Madhu sexually assaulting the elder girl. Neither parent reported these incidents to the police and continued to stay in contact with him, as evidenced by phone records.
"Once, when [Biju] was unwell and resting at home, he saw Valiya Madhu pushing my eldest daughter against the wall from behind. He wasn’t doing anything else. When [Biju] shouted at him, Madhu fled through the window,” Lakshmi told us. Their current house was under construction at that time, and it was there that Biju allegedly saw Madhu with the girl.
“I went to Madhu’s house and created a scene, and his mother assured me that she would ensure he never came near our home again. Madhu himself promised not to return. From that day on, he never visited our house when we were there,” she said.
“We asked our daughter several times if she had been assaulted before, but she said no. I didn’t report it fearing that people would humiliate and shame her," she said.
However, their initial statement to the police mentioned that Biju had witnessed Madhu sexually assaulting the elder girl. TNM had earlier reported that the police had allegedly altered the parents’ statements.
Marson, a leader of the Action Council, had told us in 2020 that Lakshmi, who doesn't know how to read or write, had asked for a photograph of the statement when it was recorded after the High Court approved the reinvestigation. When she showed the photograph to Marson, she realised that her statement had been wrongly written down, she said.
Both girls had complained to her about the juvenile accused, Lakshmi told us. “They complained that the boy would pinch them and touch them inappropriately when he came to our house on the pretext of drinking water while playing nearby. I confronted him and warned him against coming home again for water. After that, they never mentioned anything, and I had no knowledge of the assault," she said.
She explained her decision not to report the incidents, saying, “Back then, I was worried about how people would view my daughter if they found out that her own uncle had abused her. There was nobody to support me or give me the courage to complain.”
The CBI, however, dismissed this explanation as not credible. They pointed out that Lakshmi had filed a rape complaint with the police in 2003, arguing that as a survivor of sexual violence herself, she should have reported the assaults on her children.
What the chargesheet omits, however, is that the 2003 complaint was against Lakshmi’s then partner — the biological father of her eldest daughter — who had allegedly abandoned her when she became pregnant. “I was just 21 then. I got pregnant, and he left me. It was a case seeking support,” she said.
The family and the action council strongly believe that the children were murdered. The first person to find the elder girl dead in the shed was her nine-year-old sister. The younger girl, who had gone out to collect fodder for goats, saw two men leave the shed as she approached home, Lakshmi told us. “She told me that she saw two people running out of the shed immediately before her sister was found dead. She informed the police about this as well. Still, there was no inquiry into it," the mother said.
The chargesheet mentions the statement that the second girl saw two men running away from the shed.
The body of the second child was found by Lakshmi herself. She recounted how she initially thought the child was standing on the cot, with one foot touching it. “It was after I turned on the light that I saw her hanging. Her hands couldn't have reached the rafters on the roof. How can I believe that she hanged herself after seeing that?” she asked, adding that the girl also had injuries on her legs.
While rejecting the chargesheets filed by the first CBI team, the Palakkad POCSO court had noted, “Investigations revealed that the death of girls is by suicide and that there is no evidence to suggest it is a homicide.” However, the court also observed, “It is true that after the death of the victim girls and due to defective investigation, the scientific and direct evidence could not be collected.”
The second team of CBI investigators also say that homicide is unlikely and that both children's deaths were most likely suicides. They state that chances of homicide were ruled out on the basis of forensic and medical reports that cited the absence of incapacitating injuries, signs of struggle, or forced restraint.
At her home in Selvapuram, Lakshmi showed us a diary left by her 16-year-old son, who now studies in a residential school. “I can read a little bit with a lot of effort now,” she said softly.
One entry from her son read: “Every day, my sisters come to me in my dreams, and we play.”
If you are aware of anyone facing mental health issues or feeling suicidal, please provide help.
Kerala:
Maithri helpline - 0484-2540530
Chaithram helpline: 0484-2361161
Both are 24-hour helpline numbers.
Tamil Nadu:
State health department suicide helpline number - 104
Sneha Suicide Prevention Centre - 044-24640050 (listed as the sole suicide prevention helpline in TN)
Telangana:
Telangana government suicide prevention toll free no - 104
Roshni- 040-66202000, 66202001
SEVA- 09441778290, 040 - 27504682 (between 9 AM and 7 PM)
Karnataka:
Sahai : 24-hour helpline numbers: 080- 65000111, 080-65000222
Andhra Pradesh:
Life Suicide Prevention Helpline No.78930-78930
Roshni
Helpline 1: 9166202000
Helpline 2: 9127848584
Editor´s note : They are also charged under Section 109 of the IPC (abetment) read with Sections 376 and 377 of the IPC. This means that Section 109 will be interpreted in conjunction with Sections 376 and 377 to fully understand the legal implications of the offences.