india

Updated: Oct 30, 2019 09:54 IST

Kerala chief secretary and the state’s police chief are to be summoned soon by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for suspected derailment of the 2017 case of rape and suspicious deaths of two minor Dalit girls from Palakkad. A ruling CPM leader’s alleged involvement in the botching up of the case, leading to the acquittal of the accused, has also led to demands for a CBI probe.

Vice chairman of the commission, Dr L Murgan, met the parents of the victims and said the police, prosecution and a political party had together attempted to sabotage the case. He added the DGP and the chief secretary will be summoned to New Delhi and the case will be monitored.

“We found that right from the day one, there were attempts to weaken the case, investigators, prosecution and others played their part. We talked to parents and were shocked to hear how authorities, who were there to ensure justice, botched up the case,” Murugan said. He also added that the girls’ mother had accused leaders from a political party of trying to save the accused.

Two Palakkad siblings-- aged between 11 and 8-- died in suspicious circumstances within two months of each other in 2017 after they were allegedly raped by a relative and his friends. The case had drawn comparisons with the infamous Kathua rape and murder case.

A POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) court, while acquitting the accused on Saturday, pulled up the investigating team saying it did not present enough scientific evidence in the case.

The parents, on Tuesday, demanded an independent probe by a central agency.

“We have lost faith in the state police. It seems the government wants to hide many things and is therefore scared of the CBI probe,” said the minors’ mother.

The Congress-led UDF has called for a state-monitored CBI probe and announced a Palakkad shutdown on November 5. BJP’s K Surendran accused the state law minister A K Balan of “trying to save the accused,” who, he said, “were close to him”. The BJP has also called for an indefinite stir in Palakkad.

Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, who hails from the state, has also asked the chairman of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to intervene in the case.