Relative of Vandiperiyar case acquitted man attempts to murder kin of victim
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Idukki, Kerala: The Kerala police have charged the relative of the man acquitted in the Vandiperiyar rape and murder case with trying to kill two members of the victim's family, according to a formal complaint filed in relation to the incident.
Babu alias Palraj (46), a close relative of Arjun who was acquitted by a local court in the rape-cum-murder case, was arrested by Vandiperiyar police for violating the IPC's sections 307 (attempted murder), 324 (causing hurt with a dangerous weapon), and 294(b) (uttering obscene words in public).
Palraj was arrested on Saturday evening, police said.
According to the FIR in the case, the accused attacked the father of the minor victim in the rape-cum-murder case with a sharp weapon intending to kill him.
The FIR also stated that when the minor girl's grandfather tried to intervene, he was also stabbed in the shoulder by the accused.
According to the police, the accused used obscene words against the minor girl's family to cause them emotional distress.
The incident occurred on Saturday morning at a place near Vandiperiyar town.
The father and grandfather of the minor girl are undergoing treatment at Kottayam Medical College.
The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) is expected to hold a protest on Sunday at Vandiperiyar expressing solidarity with the victim's family.
A POCSO court, on December 14, 2023, acquitted Arjun (24), in the case, saying the "prosecution failed to establish all the circumstances which are consistent with the guilt of the accused and inconsistent with his innocence."
Subsequently, the Kerala High Court had on January 4 admitted the state government's appeal against the acquittal in the case.
The six-year-old girl was found hanging inside her house on June 30, 2021, when her parents went out for work on a nearby plantation.
Police had initially registered a case of unnatural death, but the autopsy report confirmed that the child was raped before she was hanged.
With PTI inputs