ALAPPUZHA, PALAKKAD: Pradeep Kumar, the third accused in the Walayar case, was found hanging at his residence at Vayalar near Cherthala on Wednesday.Cherthala circle inspector P Sreekumar said Pradeep, 36, was found dead in the stair case room of his house by Wednesday noon. “Though his relatives rushed him to a hospital, he could not be saved. The exact reason for the death could only be ascertained after a detailed probe,” said Sreekumar.
Pradeep was acquitted by the special Pocso court in the case in which two Dalit girls were found dead after being assaulted sexually in 2017. His neighbours said financial crisis could have led him to take the extreme step. “He had gone to a bank in Cherthala in the morning. He killed himself after he returned,” said a neighbour. He committed suicide after informing his wife about it through a video call, said police.
Pradeep, who was then the girls’ neighbour, was the first to be acquitted by the special court on September 30, 2019, for want of evidence and the prosecution’s failure to prove the case against him. Subsequently on October 25, 2019, the first accused M Madhu and the second accused V Madhu, who were close relatives of the girls’ mother, and the fourth accused Shibu, who was living with the family for eight years, were acquitted.
After the acquittal by the Pocso court, the state government and the girls’ mother approached the High Court challenging the order. The government submitted that the probe was faulty and the murder angle was not probed properly. There was also a controversy that the former chairperson of the district Child Welfare Committee had represented Pradeep in the trial court before he assumed office.