Uproar in Kerala assembly over acquittal in girls death case

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly witnessed a protest over the acquittal of the key accused in a case of the death of two minor sisters, with the Congress-led Opposition seeking a discussion on the issue and a CBI probe.

Even as the noisy scenes continued in the Assembly, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan remained non-committal over the Opposition demand.

While denying the demand for an adjournment motion to discuss the issue, Vijayan assured the House that a humanitarian approach would be taken and the government will appeal against the verdict. He also said that his government may consider a CBI probe.

"We all expected that the accused would be punished, but the verdict was otherwise. We will look into all aspects and consider," said Vijayan.

Unhappy with Vijayan's statement, the entire Opposition protested in the Assembly forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day.

As the Opposition launched an attack against the government, the website of the Kerala Law department was hacked by Kerala Cyber Warriors with a hashtag surfacing 'Justice for our sisters'.

The case surfaced in January 2017, when an 11-year-old girl's body was found by her nine-year-old sister in her house in a village in the Palakkad district.

Two months later, the younger girl was also found dead in her home in similar circumstances.

Though the police arrested five persons, the accused were, however, let off last week by a court for want of evidence as the prosecution failed to prove the case against them.

Local legislator Shafi Parambil of the Congress slammed the government over the issue.

"When this case surfaced, you said the police will do their job and not let the accused off, and today what has happened and again you say the same thing. The victim's mother had publicly said that the CPI-M helped the accused and what have you done on that," asked Parambil.

When the court verdict came last week, the mother of the victims told the media that even with the autopsy report stating that sexual assault was carried out, the prosecution failed to do anything.

On Monday in Palakkad, the youth wings of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party took out protest marches to the district police office seeking justice for the victims.