Acquittal of youth accused of rape, murder of six-year-old child in Kerala
Thiruvananthapuram: With the acquittal of youth in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Idukki district causing massive outrage in Kerala, the principal opposition parties in the state have intensified their protest to seek justice for the child.
Special Fast Track Court in Kattappana on Thursday acquitted 24-year-old youth Arjun, accused of raping and murdering the girl at Vandiperiyar in Idukki on June 30, 2021. His acquittal triggered huge protests as the court while delivering the judgment, observed that the police had failed to produce sufficient evidence to incriminate the accused in the case.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has already stated that the government would examine the verdict in detail. “The court has made certain observations and these will be looked at seriously. We will examine the verdict in detail and further action will be taken accordingly. The acquittal of the accused in the case was not a proud thing for the state,” the chief minister said the other day.
KPCC president demands CBI probe
Meanwhile, Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran visited the victim’s family in Idukki on Sunday and offered all assistance to them to fight the case. He demanded a CBI probe into the case to ensure stringent punishment for the accused.
The workers of the Congress and BJP took to the streets organising demonstrations in Idukki and Thiruvananthapuram demanding reinvestigation into the case. BJP, Yuva Morcha Mahila Morcha workers took out a protest march through Vandipeiryar town and blocked the Kottarakara-Dindigul national highway.
On Friday, BJP Mahila Morcha workers barged into the DGP’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram demanding justice for the child.
The opposition is of the view that the police had deliberately botched up the investigations to save the accused because of his reported links with the ruling party's youth wing. Apart from opposition parties, the CPI which is the second biggest party in the ruling LDF, has also demanded a detailed probe into the case. The party alleged that the case was deliberately weakened to save the accused.
The case
The six-year-old girl was found hanging inside her Layam (cluster home) on June 30, 2021. Initially, it was believed that the girl might have died accidentally after a shawl got tightened around her neck. However, the post-mortem examination later revealed that the child was subjected to sexual abuse for a long period. The child’s parents used to leave for work in the morning and the accused used to frequently visit the house and sexually abuse the girl.
As the accused was a close acquaintance of the family, the parents didn’t suspect his involvement in the crime in the beginning.
The investigations into the case had revealed that on the day of the incident the girl became unconscious during sexual abuse. The accused thought the girl had died and he hung her in the room using a rope.
