POSCO court rejects CBI chargesheet in Kerala minor sisters’ death, orders another probe

A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Kerala, on Wednesday, ordered further investigation into the 2017 death of two under-aged sisters in Palakkad district’s Valayar area.

The court in Palakkad, while considering the objections of alleged lapses in the investigation raised by the victims’ mother, rejected the chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that concluded that the sisters, aged 13 and nine, hanged themselves because of harassment.

The court told the CBI to further investigate the possibility that the two girls could have been murdered.

Part of a Dalit family, the sisters were found hanging in their one-room thatched house—one on January 13, 2017, and the other on March 4. Medical examination of their bodies indicated sexual assault on the children. Five accused in the case—locals who were closely connected with the family—were earlier acquitted. A CBI investigation was initiated, consequently.