As the demand for reinvestigating the Walayar case becomes louder, legal experts point out that the law forbids such an investigation into the charges from which an accused is either acquitted or convicted by a court of law.
There will be a bar on a reprobe by the CBI or any other agency into the earlier charges and the only legal option before the State in the case is to file an appeal against the judgment in the Kerala High Court.
However, the allegation that the girls were murdered can be probed anew as it had not been raised against the accused earlier, judicial sources said.
The sessions court, Palakkad, had set free Pradeep Kumar of Cherthala after finding him not guilty of the charges levelled against him. The prosecution case was that five persons committed independent sexual offences against the girl at different points of time.
The acquittal has triggered public outrage and various agencies have called for reinvestigating the case.
The accused had been charged with Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code for rape, 377 (unnatural offences), 305 (abetment to suicide of child or insane person), and 354 (assault or use of criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty).
The police had also invoked provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offices Act and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The police case was that the two minor girls, who were sisters aged 13 and 9, were repeatedly subjected to unnatural sexual intercourse. The intolerable sexual assault and harassment by the accused led to the girls committing suicide.
Double Jeopardy
Article 20 (2) of the Constitution deals with the Doctrine of Double Jeopardy that says that no person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. Any further investigation against the accused on the same charges for which he was found not guilty will amount to double jeopardy.
Section 300 of the Code of Criminal Procedure says that a “person who has once been tried by a court of competent jurisdiction for an offence and convicted or acquitted of such offence shall, while such conviction or acquittal remains in force, not be liable to be tried again for the same offence...”, the judicial sources said.
Possibilities
A fresh investigation would be possible only on fresh charges, which were not earlier raised against him and that too based on a fresh set of facts and substantial evidence against him, pointed out a senior district judge.
Another legal option is to approach the High Court or the Supreme Court to quash the investigation and trial.
Such an option can be explored only when one has enough evidence to convince the court that the investigation agency sabotaged the legitimate probe through its various acts of commission and omission and the trial in the case was erroneous.
The apex court had ordered retrial in the Best Bakery case, pointed out a senior lawyer.
