No link between deaths of accused & Walayar victims, says CBI

Accuses parents, says though police tried to collect evidence from the younger girl (now-deceased) via counselling, her mother did not allow them to examine her

- P RAMDAS @Kochi

PROBING the rape and death of two minor girls in Walayar, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has revealed that the demise of a couple of accused persons and a suspect during the investigation has no reasonable connection to the siblings' death and occurred due to unrelated reasons.

The victims' parents, who approached the Kerala HC seeking to quash the chargesheet against them, said no investigation was conducted into the suspicious deaths of the accused — Pradeep and Madhu alias Kutti Madhu — and the suspect, John Praveen.

Opposing the petition, the CBI filed an affidavit which also stated that there was no evidence supporting the deposition of the deceased younger child, who had claimed to have seen two persons leaving the house on January 7, 2017, six days before the death of her elder sister.