PALAKKAD: In an emotional plea, the mother of the two minor Dalit girls, who were found hanging in their one-room hut in Walayar after being sexually assaulted, has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident.In a three-page letter, she said it pained her to read the news reports that Special Investigation Team head and then DySP M J Sojan, who tried to sabotage the case, was recommended for IPS, while sub-inspector P C Chacko, who was found to have played a key role in torpedoing the case as found by the Justice P K Haneefa Commission, was promoted CI.
“The pain and doubts that this has caused me are not small,” she wrote. “They need to be slapped with criminal cases and dismissed from service. If you are sincere about your promise, action needs to be taken against the guilty police personnel.”She said there needs to be a court-monitored probe into the entire incident, which should be completed in a time-bound manner.
She said that the Kerala Pulayar Mahasabha (KPMS) general secretary Punnala Sreekumar who had accompanied her to meet the chief minister in Thiruvananthapuram on October 31, 2019 had told her that the memorandum submitted to the chief minister and the petition filed in the High court had demanded a CBI inquiry. It was when the counsel was changed on November 4, 2020 that it came to light that there was no such demand.
The earlier counsel had made them believe that they were demanding a CBI inquiry from the High court and instead had demanded a retrial with the same witnesses and a change in the prosecutor. The girls’ mother said that they were demanding the quashing of the verdict of the Special Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) Court delivered on October 25, 2019 and a reinvestigation by the CBI into the case.
The mother of the deceased girls and the state government had approached the High Court after the Special Pocso Court had acquitted all accused.. The elder 13-year-old girl was found hanging on January 13, 2017 and the younger nine- year-old girl was found hanging in the same manner on March 4, 2017.
Their mother has also sent similar letters to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Minister for the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Tribes A K Balan.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2017...
On January 13, 2017, the older sister, aged 13, was found hanging on a rafter inside her one-room home by her younger sister, aged nine. The minor had later told the police that she had seen two men leaving the house that day. However, the police registered a case of unnatural death. Two months later, the younger sibling was also found hanging on the same rafter on March 4, shocking the family and the residents of the tiny village.