Kochi: Following relentless pursuit by state government for justice to dead minors, the High Court on Wednesday overturned trial court acquittals of suspects in the Walayar case.
The govt had petitioned the High Court against the acquittals of all suspects in Walayar case, where two minor girls aged 13 and 9 were found hanging in their house in a time-gap of just 52 days in Jan of 2017. Both were victims of sexual assaults too. The government’s appeal had described the acquittals as ”absolutely perverse and wholly unsustainable.” The victims’ mother too raised similar concerns in the court.
Based on government plea demand, the High Court had earlier made an extraordinary ruling to re-arrest suspects acquitted by the trial court. All men allegedly involved in the deaths were subsequently nabbed.
Much of these governmental efforts have been stashed away by certain sections of the media, to advance their false propaganda drive against the government, related to the case.
In court, the government on its own claimed gross lapses in the conduct of investigations and trial of the Walayar case. Still certain organisations used Walayar case to churn out fake campaign.
In view of trial proceedings that took place in the case, the government had removed the special prosecutor shortly after. More importantly, the government sought both re-investigation and re-trial for the case even as the victims’ mother asked for only re-trial and removal of special prosecutor.
The state government in its plea quoted Supreme Court ruling advising trial courts not to remain as silent witnesses to crimes that happen to families in the lower rungs of the society, and rather make needful interventions if they finds witness accounts in the case unsatisfactory.
All four accused in the case were cleared by the trial court. The case against one, a minor, lies before the juvenile court.
Apart from its appeal with the High Court, the government also took action against the Sub Inspector of Police who investigated the case. It also compensated the family monetarily and built a house for them. Post the trial court verdict, the government also ordered probe into police investigations of the case and took action against Child Welfare Committee (CWC) chairman and appointed a judicial commission to look up lapses in police investigations.
