KOCHI: After the deaths of 23 minor children in Palakkad district between 2003 and 2023 sparked alarm and prompted the Kerala High Court to seek a CBI probe, Kerala police have now concluded that none of the cases involved foul play. According to the force, 16 of those deaths were by suicide while seven were accidental. Some involved boys, while the remaining were of girls aged 13 and below.
According to a report filed with the HC, investigations revealed the suicides were the result of psychological distress, including emotional disturbance, frustration arising from unmet desires, fear of parental reprimand and other age-related vulnerabilities. Police stated that no evidence emerged warranting charges of abetment of suicide or any other cognisable offence.
The remaining seven deaths were conclusively determined to be accidental, based on inquest proceedings, postmortem examination and corroborative forensic evidence. “In none of these cases were any element of criminal culpability detected so as to attract penal provisions under the Indian Penal Code,” the report said.
There have been no objections to probe, final reports: police
The first case was reported in March 2003 at Mannarkad station and involved a 13-year-old boy who died by suicide after hanging himself from the ceiling fan in a bedroom of his house.The report filed by Palakkad district police chief Ajit Kumar said that after completing investigations into the 23 child death cases, final reports were submitted before respective sub-divisional magistrate courts, seeking sanction to dispose of the cases due to the absence of incriminating evidence. The magistrate courts, upon independent judicial scrutiny of the materials on record, accepted the final reports.
The police chief further stated that the investigations included inquests conducted by authorised officers, medicolegal autopsies carried out by competent medical officers, inspection of the scenes of occurrence with the assistance of scientific experts, seizure of material objects under duly prepared mahazars, collection and preservation of physical and forensic evidence, and forwarding the same to accredited forensic science laboratories for examination. Photographic documentation of the scenes and the deceased was carried out, and witness statements were recorded in accordance with the law.Thus, the investigations satisfied the tests of fairness, transparency, and procedural compliance as mandated under criminal jurisprudence, the report stated.
It also made it clear that in none of the cases were complaints, objections or petitions filed by relatives of the deceased or aggrieved persons challenging the investigations or final reports.
The report was filed in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a fair probe into the deaths. The PIL was filed in the wake of the 2017 deaths of the Walayar sisters.
The police report further stated that apart from the 23 cases the petitioners had raised suspicions regarding four other cases. However, these cases were not confined to or exclusively investigated by the police of Palakkad district and were instead subjected to independent and specialised investigations by higher agencies, the police chief said.
The chairperson of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights also filed an affidavit stating that the cases mentioned in the PIL were in no way directly connected, and that all incidents were reported in different areas and under different police station limits within the district.
The commission stated that no procedural lapses in medicolegal procedures and protocols were found during the police investigations, adding that it could not identify any factors supporting allegations of failure to conduct proper investigations into the alleged suicides, including examination of circumstantial evidence by the investigating agency.