Kochi, Feb 8 (PTI) The mother of the six-year-old victim in the Vandiperiyar rape-cum-murder case on Thursday moved the Kerala High Court seeking constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe afresh the killing of her daughter in 2021.
She, in her plea, has sought that the SIT should comprise officers having experience in forensic science and who have investigated cases of sexual offences and homicides.
Her plea follows the appeals filed by the state and the victim’s father against the trial court verdict of December last year acquitting the accused in the case.
The latest petition, filed through advocate P V Jeevesh, also seeks court monitoring of the re-investigation.
In addition to that, the plea also urged the court to direct the state government, its Home Department and the State Police Chief to initiate departmental proceedings against the officers who allegedly sabotaged the probe in the case.
The victim’s mother has alleged that there were “deliberate attempts” on the part of the investigating officer and his team to save the culprit in the case from the “clutches of law”.
“The investigation was conducted in a most biased and defective manner. The court below also indirectly indicated the same in its judgement.
“The investigation was biased, tainted, inefficient and untruthful, which resulted in an unmerited acquittal,” the plea has claimed.
On December 14 last year, a court in Kerala acquitted a man accused of raping and killing a six-year-old girl, who was his neighbour, at Churukkulam estate in the mountainous Idukki district of the state in June 2021.
The girl was found hanging inside her house on June 30, 2021 when her parents went out for work in a nearby plantation.
Police had initially registered a case of unnatural death but the autopsy report confirmed that the child was raped before she was hanged The Fast Track Special Court for the trial of offences under the POCSO Act had acquitted the accused saying “the prosecution failed to establish all the circumstances which are consistent with the guilt of the accused and inconsistent with his innocence.” The trial court had said that the investigating officer (IO) adopted a “lethargic attitude” throughout the investigation.
Thereafter, the issue was raised in the Kerala Assembly by the Congress-led UDF opposition and hours after that the government issued an order suspending the IO.
The suspension order, issued by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) M R Ajithkumar on February 1, had indicated that the action was taken based on the adverse observations by the trial court against the investigating officer in the case.
The ADGP’s order had also said that the investigating officer, presently posted in a police station in Ernakulam Rural district, has been placed under suspension with immediate effect pending enquiry against him.
The UDF had slammed the Left government by accusing it of “carelessness” and “indifference” in the case and “deliberately” trying to protect the accused right from the start.
The allegations were denied in the Assembly by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who had argued that the police had lodged a case in a timely manner and carried out an investigation. PTI HMP HMP ROH
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