PALAKKAD: The mother of the minor Dalit girls on Monday welcomed the government decision to hand over the probe in the case to CBI, but demanded action against the investigating officers who had botched up the inquiry. Reacting to the government decision, she said that the High Court should monitor the CBI probe. She also demanded that all police officials who were involved in scuttling the probe by not investigating the rape and murder angles should be dismissed from service by the government.
The government decision to hand over the probe to CBI comes four years after the death of the elder girl. “The investigating officers went to the extent of blaming the girls for the incidents. They had also asked the girls’ father to own up the responsibility for their deaths. The government has always stated that its is with the family who lost the two girls. If the government is sincere, it should initiate action against then DySP M J Sojan and then sub-inspector P C Chacko and dismiss them from service,” she demanded.
Walayar Neethi Samara Samithi convener V M Marsen also welcomed the government decision and demanded a High Court-monitored probe . To a question whether he was targeting only then DySP Sojan, Marsen said it was the investigating officer who was responsible for the lapses in the probe. A junior officer in the probe team under Sojan had said the younger girl had seen two persons coming out of the hut with their faces covered just before her elder sister was found hanging.
‘Investigation by local police was a failure’
Palakkad: The decision to hand over Walayar case to the CBI by the state government is tantamount to admitting that the probe into the case by the police was a failure , said C Krishnakumar, BJP state general secretary. He said that the local police had torpedoed the case. In spite of the parents of the girls and the public demanding a CBI inquiry, the government was not receptive to it. It was only when the High Court demanded further investigation into the case that the state government took a decision to hand over the case to the CBI.
He said the mother of the girls had met the Chief Minister in Thiruvananthapuram and he had promised to support the family. But when it became clear that justice was being delayed, the parents took to the path of agitation which in fact forced the hand of the government. He said that it was the LDF Government which promoted the police officials who investigated the case.