Kochi: The fourth accused in the Walayar case related to the alleged sexual assault and murder of two children, M Madhu alias Kutty Madhu, was found dead on Wednesday.

He was found hanging in a factory in Aluva. Police suspect suicide.

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Madhu’s death comes at a time when the investigation team’s petition to subject the accused to a lie-detector test was about to be pronounced.

Madhu is the second accused in the case to die while the investigation is underway. Pradeep Kumar, another accused, also killed himself in 2020 at his residence.

On January 7, 2017, a 13-year-old girl was found hanging in a shed where the family resided in Walayar, Palakkad district. In March of the same year, her 9-year-old sister was also found hanging in the same shed.

According to postmortem reports, both girls were subjected to sexual assault. The autopsy of the younger girl even suggested the possibility of homicidal hanging.

The police investigation concluded that the girls died by suicide after having been sexually abused.

In 2019, a Palakkad POCSO court acquitted four accused. But the Kerala High Court quashed the verdict and ordered a retrial in January 2021.

The case was handed over to the CBI in March 2021. In December same year, CBI repeated police findings. However, the POCSO court rejected the chargesheet and also directed the investigative agency to re-investigate the case. 

There are five accused in the case. All are now out on bail.