NCSC adjourns hearing on Palakkad minor sisters' rape and death case

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has adjourned to November 27 the hearing in the case of rape and death under suspicious circumstances of two minor Dalit girls in Kerala's Palakkad district, an official said here on Friday. NCSC vice-chairman L Murugan told PTI that the case, which came up for hearing on Thursday, was adjourned to November 27 for administrative reasons.

The NCSC had already decided to seek clarifications from the doctors who performed post-mortem on the girls' bodies. The acquittal of all the accused in the case by a special court dealing with cases pertaining to the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act had created a lot of anger and protests by political parties and NGOs who have alleged that there were deliberate laxities in investigation by the Kerala Police to help the accused.

Earlier, when the case came up on November 11, Kerala Principal Secretary (SC/ST Development) A Jayathilak and Additional DGP (Law and Order) Shaik Darvesh Saheb appeared before the NCSC and submitted some documents. The girls, both sisters, were found hanging in Shelvapram in Attapallam near Walayar in the southern state.

The elder child, aged 13, was found dead on January 13, 2017, and the younger child, aged nine, died 52 days later. Post-mortem reports suggested that they were sexually assaulted. The police had arrested four persons, one of whom was acquitted in September this year and the remaining three on October 25. The accused were charged with abetment of suicide and rape.

The Kerala government on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Kerala high court challenging the acquittal, saying the lower court verdict was "absolutely perverse and wholly unsustainable." The state government sought a direction to call for the records of the case, set aside the sessions court judgment and convict the accused for the offences or order an investigation into the crime.

The government admitted that police failed to conduct a foolproof investigation touching upon all areas which should have been covered.

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