Palakkad: A POCSO court here on Friday acquitted for want of evidence three persons accused of raping two minor sisters at Walayar and abetting their suicide.
While the first accused V. Madhu, second accused Shibu of Rajakkad and fourth accused M. Madhu were let off on Friday, third accused Pradeep Kumar was acquitted by the court last week saying that there was lack of proper circumstantial, scientific, medical and direct evidence. The trial of the fifth one, a juvenile, was completed in the Juvenile Justice Board here and the judgment is awaited.
All the accused were either relatives or close friends of the parents of the girls and resided near their house.
The elder sister aged 11 was found hanging inside her single-room house at Attappalam, Walayar, on January 13, 2017, and the younger one, 9, in the same room on March 4. They belonged to the scheduled caste.
The post-mortem reports said they were raped for a long time. The accused were slapped with charges of rape, aiding suicide and sections of P0CSO.
The three accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence, the judge said in a single line order. The full judgment is yet to be out.
PoCSO special public prosecutor Latha Jayaraj told reporters that an appeal could be filed against the acquittal. Thrissur range DIG S. Surendran said a decision would be taken on the appeal and the need to look into the allegations of lapses in the police inquiry in the case after getting the copy of the judgment.
Mother says investigators bungled case
The mother of the two siblings said that she had given all the possible evidence in the court. “I had also witnessed an accused torturing one of my daughters. But I don’t know why the accused were let off,” she said and added that the police had not investigated the case properly.
However, the defence lawyer said that there were glaring inconsistencies in her statements recorded by the cops starting from the death of the elder girl.
