Probe sabotaged due to political pressure? | Kochi News

tnn | Updated: Oct 28, 2019, 4:22 IST

Palakkad: As the Pocso court acquitted all four accused in the alleged murder of two sisters in Walayar for want of evidence, the kin of the victims suspect foul play. They suspect political pressure to sabotage the probe since two of the accused are members of the youth wing of the ruling party.
Had the police taken sincere efforts right from the beginning in collecting evidence and arranging proper witnesses, they could have proven the case since the postmortem report had indicated that both the girls — aged 13 and 8 — were sexually exploited, including unnatural sex. The elder sister was found hanging in her house on January 13, 2017 and the postmortem report said that the girl was sexually abused. However, police registered a case only after protests from the parents and the public.
The younger sister was also found hanging in the same way in the house on March 4, 2017. Her postmortem report also indicated sexual abuse. Even after the second incident, police could not come up with proper evidence and present credible witnesses to prove the case. Both the witnesses in the case turned hostile, which weakened the case.
The mother of the deceased girls said that she had informed the police that the elder daughter was sexually exploited and the younger girl was a witness to it. “I informed them the name of the torturer too,” she said.
“If police had recorded the statement and investigated the first case properly, the brutal murder of our younger daughter could have been avoided,” the parents said.
The lawyer of one of the accused in the case later becoming the chief of the child welfare council also gives ample scope to suspect that there was an orchestrated move to safeguard the accused. The fact that he was a former block panchayat member lays bare the political connections and there was criticism from various quarters against his appointment. tnn

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source https://cvrnewsdirect.com/probe-sabotaged-due-to-political-pressure-kochi-news/