KOCHI: Tightening the noose around the parents of the Walayar sisters, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the special court in Ernakulam seeking permission to reopen three cases and further investigate their role in abetting the minors’ sexual abuse and alleged suicide — less than two months apart — in 2017.
The court’s approval will make them an accused in three additional cases. The central investigating agency recently filed six chargesheets implicating the mother and her husband — the stepfather of the elder child — as additional accused in each case.
Two of the accused in the three cases — Pradeep Kumar, a close associate of the parents, and Madhu M alias Kutty Madhu, a cousin of the victims — died by suicide during trial in various courts. In its plea, the CBI said that reopening the cases is essential to file three supplementary chargesheets against the parents.
It asserted that the two played an active role in abetting and facilitating the crime, as well as engaging in wilful negligence as parents — offences punishable under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and the Juvenile Justice Act.
The petition, accessed by TNIE, said the role of the parents came to light during further investigation.
The CBI stated that Pradeep Kumar — named in two of the cases which the agency has sought to reopen — committed suicide while appeals were pending before the Kerala High Court. On January 6, 2021, the HC set aside the order of the trial court acquitting all the accused. In the same order, charges against Pradeep Kumar were abated as he was no more. “During further investigation, it has been revealed that the parents had abetted the principal offences committed by Pradeep Kumar,” the agency said.
Pradeep Kumar was accused of the rape and death of the two girls, while Madhu, who died by suicide on October 25, 2023, was named in the first case, involving the rape of the elder girl, who was 12 years old.
In its chargesheet in a related case, the CBI said that many witnesses had revealed that the parents used to drink with first-accused Shibu and other accused in their one-room shed during evenings and holidays. The presence of Shibu within the house raises doubts about his intention, the agency said.
To prove the abetment charge, it produced video clippings retrieved from the mobile phone of the mother. One of the videos, which was found to be recorded on December 11, 2016, shows Shibu and the father sleeping on the floor inside the shed, with the elder victim lying between them watching television.
The mother is also seen. During interrogation, the parents claimed that Shibu had started living in their house ten days prior to the death of the elder child. Thus, it is evident that the parents abetted Shibu by providing him complete and free access to the elder victim in their house, the CBI said.
Further, the forensic retrieval of data from the phone of the mother revealed that the memory card contained about 200 videos of pornographic content. There are also about ten recorded videos of goats, a television running cartoon, a room shed, indicating that the victims also used to handle the phone, the agency said.
The special court will hear the CBI’s petition to reopen the three cases on March 5.