A 24-year-old youth Arjun, accused of raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl at Vandiperiyar in Idukki, was acquitted by a Special Fast Track Court at Kattappana on Thursday.
The court observed that the police had failed to produce sufficient evidence to incriminate the accused in the case. In her judgment, fast-track court judge V. Manju said that the prosecution had failed to prove the case.
The court witnessed dramatic scenes following the verdict. The relatives of the child tried to attack the accused. The child’s mother created an uproar on the court premises and her relatives waylaid the police jeep that was taking the accused back. The parents shouted that the child did not get justice. The police had a difficult time shifting the youth from the court complex.
Special Public Prosecutor Maheshwaran Pillai said that the prosecution submitted maximum evidence before the court. Former Vandiperiyar Circle Inspector T.D. Sunilkumar said that the police had submitted all evidence before the court in the case.
On June 30, 2021
The prosecution case related to the death of a six-year-old girl who was found hanging inside her Layam (cluster home) on June 30, 2021. The initial report suggested that the girl died accidentally after rope inside the got tightened on her neck. However, the post-mortem examination revealed that she was subjected to severe sexual abuse for long. The police said the parents of the child used to go to work in the morning, and the accused frequented her house, abusing the child for a long time. As he was close to the family, it was not initially suspected that he was involved in the crime. The child fell unconscious while she was sexually abused and suspecting that the child was dead, the accused hung her on the rope inside the room.
The Vandiperiyar police later arrested the 22-year-old youth who lived in the same estate lane in connection the death.
Protest marches
Youth Congress and Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) activists took out protest marches to the Vandiperiyar police station on Thursday evening, alleging that lapses on the part of the police led to the acquittal of the accused.
Communist Party of India (CPI) Idukki district secretary K. Salimkumar said that it was mysterious how the accused was acquitted. Murder and rape was confirmed in the case. The family of the accused and his lawyer announced a day before the pronouncement of the verdict that he would be acquitted in the case. Mr. Salim Kumar demanded that the High Court order a reinvestigation into the case.
The police will file an appeal against the court verdict.
‘Police failure
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan has termed the acquittal of the sole accused in the case a police failure. Mr. Satheesan pointed out that the suspect was a Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) activist with strong Communist Party of India (Marxist) links. He demanded a government inquiry into the possibility of sabotage at the political level.
