The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was ordered by the Kerala High Court on Wednesday to refrain from taking any action, including making an arrest, against the parents of two Dalit girls who were reportedly raped and killed in Walayar in 2017 as part of an interim order.

The deaths of two Dalit sisters, ages 9 and 13, who were discovered hanging at their house in 2017 within a few months of one another, are known as the Walayar case.

According to the younger girl’s allegation, there may have been homicidal hanging, but scientific evidence indicated sexual assault.

However, in 2019, a trial judge dismissed all of the charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act (POCSO Act) for lack of evidence.

The case was thereafter handed to the CBI, which submitted its charge sheet in January 2025 after the High Court ordered a retrial.

After the CBI identified the parents as accused in its charge sheet, claiming that they had failed to protect their girls from the accused, so aiding and abetting the sexual attack of their daughters, everything fell apart.

The parents then petitioned the High Court to have the CBI’s charge sheet against them quashed.

The central agency was accused by the parents of conducting a “planned investigation” in order to protect the actual offenders.

The High Court then requested the CBI’s answer to the petition.

The parents were granted temporary protection by the High Court on Wednesday, and the matter was scheduled for a thorough hearing after the next court holidays.

In addition to accusing the parents of destroying evidence by burning their daughters’ clothing and school bags, the CBI named the parents as accused in their charge sheet after their investigation, claiming that they had assisted in the sexual abuse of their daughters.

The CBI charged the parents under many sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Juvenile Justice Act, and the POCSO Act that address cruelty to children, evidence destruction, and aiding and abetting rape and other unnatural offenses.

The parents, however, have called for a new probe into the potential of murder, which includes looking into a disputed “death note” that was purportedly written by an accused person but that the CBI neglected to submit for forensic processing even though the court had given its approval.