KASARGOD: The mother of two minor Dalit girls – who were raped and found dead in their house at Walayar – has started a statewide campaign from Kasaragod demanding justice and ouster of police officers who sabotaged the investigation.The two sisters – aged 13 years and nine years – were found dead, hanging from the rafter in a span of 52 days. In October 2019, the trial court acquitted all the four accused in the case for lack of evidence.
Speaking from under the Oppumaram – the protest tree – near the new bus stand in Kasaragod, the mother said she was taking her protest to the public so that other mothers did not have to beg for justice. “It is not a campaign to ensure the electoral defeat of the CPM, but to ensure no other mother faces the same fate as mine,” she said.
But she also asked why should there be a government if it could not protect women and children. In the past five years, 41 cases of child sexual abuse were registered in Walayar police station. The verdicts in 12 cases were out and in all the cases, all the accused were acquitted, she said, quoting from an RTI reply. “If we remain silent and not demand action against the officers, I don’t think there will be any change in how the police and the prosecution approach such cases,” she said.
She is demanding the ouster of investigating officers the then DySP M J Sojan and Walayar sub-inspector P C Chacko from the police force for getting zero conviction in her daughter’s case. But the government promoted Sojan to IPS-ranked superintendent of police.