Walayar Rape-Death Cases : Kerala High Court Sets Aside Trial Court Judgment Acquitting Accused; Orders Re-Trial

The Kerala High Court on Monday ordered re-trial in the case relating to the rape-death of two minor girls of Dalit community in Walayar, Palakkad district.Allowing the appeals of the State Government, a division bench comprising Justices A Hariprasad and MR Anita set aside the acquittal of the accused. The accused have been asked to surrender before the trial court on January 20. The HC has also given liberty to the prosecution to seek further investigation in the case. One of the four accused, Pradeep Kumar, had died last year in a suspected suicide. Valiya Madhu, Kutty Madhu and Shibu are the remaining three accused.The Court directed the trial judge to permit the parties to adduce additional evidence.The High Court observed that there were lapses in the investigation, prosecution and also in adjudication."We are constrained to observe that the initial part of the investigation in the cases was utterly disgusting. The investigating officer, who was deputed to investigate these cases almost a week after the younger girl's death, failed to gather any proper scientific evidence", the HC judgment said.Perfunctory initial investigation, unskilled prosecution, lack of involvement by trial judge"...we are fully convinced that the perfunctory initial investigation and cursory, desultory and unskilled prosecution coupled with the lack of involvement by the trial Judge resulted in miscarriage of justice and the consequential unmerited acquittals in all these cases. Certainly, the fact situations in these cases reveal extraordinary circumstances requiring extraordinary remedies. Therefore, we have no hesitation to hold that trial in all the above Sessions Cases have been lowered to the level of mock trials", the court said.The material witnesses who deviated from their previous statements were not effectively cross-examined. "Although in some cases the prosecutor had put some vague questions under Section154 of the Evidence Act with the permission of the court, we find that the prosecutor miserably failed to confront the witnesses with their previous statements", the judgment authored by Justice Hariprasad noted.Judges handling POCSO cases must be given trainingThe Court also noted that the trial judge did not show active involvement in the case. Therefore, the HC has given a direction to the The Director, Kerala Judicial Academy shall to periodically arrange special training programmes for the Additional Sessions Judges handling POCSO cases in order to guide and sensitize them on the legal,social and psychological aspects involved in such cases."We are disheartened to note the manner in which the learned Judge conducted the trial. He failed to perform a proactive role at the time of taking evidence", the judgment stated.Criticizes trend of appointing prosecutors on political considerationsThe Court also directed that the judgment should be forwarded to the Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala to avoid such serious flaws in investigation and prosecution.The Court lamented that prosecutors are often selected on political considerations overlooking merit."Notoriously well known is the fact that the successive Governments make appointments to the posts of public prosecutor and additional public prosecutor mainly considering their political leanings and affinity towards the ruling dispensation. It is a matter of concern that no effective consultation with the District and Sessions Judges happen before appointing public prosecutors for the District Judiciary. Many a time, suitability, integrity and merit are not regarded as the prime considerations. Appointments of Government pleaders and public prosecutors,including the special public prosecutors, can never be regarded as part of any social welfare scheme of the State Government so as to benefit a particular class of advocates disregarding their suitability, merit, integrity and capability.In other words, such posts are not intended to provide employment to the favourites of the ruling dispensation on extraneous considerations. State Government is a constitutional entity and it is duty bound to remember that they are appointing Government pleaders and public prosecutors to discharge their constitutional obligations to maintain law and order".Case BackgroundIn October 2019, a Special POCSO Court at Palakkad had acquitted four persons who were accused of rape and murder to two sisters, aged 13 and 9. The acquittal verdict had caused much outrage in the Kerala civil society, with serious criticism of miscarriage of justice during trial.The elder sister, aged 13, was found hanging in her house on January 13, 2017. Within two months, the younger sister, aged 9, was also found hanging in her house on March 4, 2017. Both of them belonged to Scheduled Caste community. As per the postmortem reports, both the girls were subjected to sexual...

Walayar Rape-Death Cases : Kerala High Court Sets Aside Trial Court Judgment Acquitting Accused; Orders Re-Trial

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Walayar Rape-Death Cases : Kerala High Court Sets Aside Trial Court Judgment Acquitting Accused; Orders Re-Trial

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