Kochi, Apr 2 (PTI) The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI not to take any coercive steps against the parents of two minor Dalit girls who were raped and later found dead in Walayar near Palakkad in 2017.

The High Court also directed that parents need not appear in person before the special CBI court where the agency has filed its chargesheets arraigning them as accused on various charges under the IPC, Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

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"Coercive steps kept in abeyance. Personal appearance is dispensed with," Justice C Jayachandran said and posted the matter for further hearing on May 19.

The directions came on the parents' plea seeking quashing of the chargesheets against them.

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The parents, their plea filed through advocate P V Jeevesh, have also sought an investigation into the homicidal angle in connection with their daughters' deaths.

The central agency has completed their investigation into the case and has filed six chargesheets.

In the chargesheets filed in March, CBI has arraigned the parents of the victims as the accused on charges under Section 16, 17 (abetment) of the POCSO Act, IPC Sections 109 (abetment) r/w Section 376(2)(f)(i)(n) (rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 201 (causing disappearance of the offence) and Section 75 (punishment for cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

The Dalit sisters aged 13 and nine were found hanging in their one-room thatched house in a gap of around 50 days on January 13 and March 4, 2017.

The children were allegedly found to have suffered sexual assault. Five accused in the case were earlier acquitted.

Later, a CBI probe was ordered considering the mother's demand. The agency also concluded that the sisters ended life by hanging owing to trauma over the harassment suffered by them.

The petitioners have alleged that the investigating agency has no definite conclusion about the manner of death as to whether it is a homicide or suicide.

"The petitioners have been arrayed as the accused not on logical grounds. Merely based on some witness statements having no credibility, the investigating officer has reached the conclusion that the petitioners have committed the offences," according to the plea.

The relationship between the petitioners and the accused is presented with exaggeration and embroidery, it has alleged.

The petition has also stated that no investigation has been conducted into the suspicious deaths of the accused persons- Pradeep and Madhu alias Kutti Madhu, and a suspect, John Praveen.

It has further alleged that the investigating agency was trying to end the matter as a suicide case.

"Throughout the inquiry, they had picked out some materials to write off a heinous crime only as a suicide case," it has claimed.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)