Kochi: The six-year-old case relating to the rape and alleged murder of two minor sisters at Walayar has got murkier with the unnatural death of a third person involved in the case.

The death of Cheriya Madhu (33), the fourth accused in the sensational case, by alleged suicide on Wednesday has raised suspicions among those who have been seeking justice for the victim girls. Earlier, two other men -- a suspect interrogated and an accused named in the case -- were found dead in a similar manner.

The Walayar Neethi Samara Samithi -- a civic forum formed to seek justice for the girls -- along with the victims' mother has sought a detailed investigation into the death of Cheriya Madhu which they find mysterious.

They have filed a complaint to the Aluva rural SP and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking the probe. The central agency is now investigating the rape and murder case dating back to 2017.

"During the police probe itself John Praveen, who was suspected to be an accused, had committed suicide. Pradeep, another accused in the case had also committed suicide. It is suspected that there is some vested interests behind the death of the accused during the investigation. We think there is a motive to undermine the probe and protect those likely to be found as accused behind this," the complaint to the police and CBI states.

The complainants have demanded that the phone and documents relating to the deceased be seized immediately.

Activist C R Neelakandan, who is the patron of the Neethi action council, said they had made a similar demand when Pradeep Kumar, another accused, committed suicide. He was found hanging inside his house at Cherthala, Alappuzha in November 2020. Neelakandan said they have found through an RTI inquiry that the police have submitted Pradeep's phone to a local court in Alappuzha.

"We have requested the CBI to access it. It will be crucial to establish his links with other possible accused," he said.

"The action council is of the firm belief that more people are involved in the case. The CBI probe may have led to more people and it could have spelled trouble for many," he said.

CBI special public prosecutor Rajesh M Menon echoed the action council's concerns. "Of course, a third suicide during the course of investigation raises some doubts. There is something mysterious about it and it needs to be probed," the lawyer who secured conviction in the Attappady Madhu lynching case told Onmanorama.

Cheriya Madhu was found hanging inside a factory at Binanipuram in Aluva. He is a close relative of the deceased children.

The two minor girls, hailing from Walayar in Palakkad, were found hanging inside their house after alleged sexual assault in 2017. The eldest of the siblings aged 13 was found hanging inside their hut on January 13, 2017 and her nine-year old sister had died on March 4 that year in the same manner.

Though the mother had alleged that it was a case of murder, Walayar police came to the conclusion that the girls were sexually abused in an unnatural way by five persons, including a juvenile, for nearly one year till they died by suicide.

Allowing appeals filed by the state government and the mother of the children, the High Court had ordered a retrial in the case in January 2021, observing that there were “serious lapses” in the investigation and that there had been “miscarriage of justice”.

The High Court had also set aside an October 2019 order of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court acquitting the five accused for want of evidence.

Public outcry and protests had erupted in the state after the acquittal of the accused as they sought justice for the family of the deceased girls.

The LDF government had handed over the probe to the CBI shortly after the High Court ordered a retrial in the sensational case.

However, a charge sheet, submitted by the CBI before the POCSO court in Kochi in December 2021, also stated that the girls had died by suicide after they were sexually assaulted. Last month, the central agency replaced its members with officers from other states and another round of investigation is on.