Kerala govt decides to vest Walayar sexual assault case probe with CBI

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 11 (PTI) Days after the Kerala
High Court ordered a retrial in the sensational Walayar case,
the LDF government on Monday decided to hand over to the CBI
the probe into the death of two minor sisters after alleged
sexual assault in 2017.
The decision was taken based on the request of the family
of the children, a senior official in the Chief Minister's
Office (CMO) told PTI.
Allowing appeals filed by the state government and the
mother of the children, the high court had on January 6
ordered a retrial in the case, observing that there were
serious lapses in the investigation and that there has been
miscarriage of justice.
A division bench of Justices A Hariprasad and M R Anitha
had 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.
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.
Both were allegedly sexually assaulted.
The mother of the girlshad earlier sought a CBI probe.
Public outcry and protests had erupted in the state after
the acquittal of the accused, seeking justice to the family of
the girls.
The state government had on November 18, 2019 removed the
Public Prosecutor who handled the case and later filed the
appeal in the high court. PTI RRT
VS VS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)