The Walayar rape and murder case, which had caused unprecedented outcry across the State of Kerala seems to be in for another round of political ploughing, what with the Congress front submitting a representation to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a CBI probe into the matter. On the same day, the Kerala government submitted to the Kerala High Court seeking reinvestigation in the case. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently also made known that the public prosecutor who had handled the case was also sacked.

In a case that shocked the conscience of a State, two Dalit sisters were found hanging in their house within a week. While the older was 11, the younger child was nine years old. Investigating officers later submitted that the children had both committed suicide following insufferable and repeated sexual abuse from the hands of five culprits.

Even as the parents cried foul, saying they did not believe the children had killed themselves, especially the younger girl who was a witness of her elder sister's abuse, a POCSO court acquitted the named culprits, shocking the state in general with the verdict that gives the flimsiest grounds for the acquittals. The State has been smouldering ever since the accused were acquited and the issue had gone past the involvement of political parties, capturing the imagination and outrage of the artists and activists of the state. Indeed, the issue was the bone of contention when the State Assembly met in the last week of October.

The worst of the outcry focused on the fact that the police had failed to record the complaint as it was dictated to them by the family, and the fact that the POCSO court consistently refused to admit to trial, more than two eye witness accounts of the abuses the elder girl suffered. On Monday, Kerala sacked the public prosecutor in the case, as he had failed to present the incriminating evidence against the accused. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also submitted to the high court on Wednesday seeking re-investigation and trial.