Activists protesting in demand of a better probe in the case. (Representational)
The mother of two minor sisters, who were found hanging in their hut after an alleged sexual assault on them, tonsured her head on Saturday to protest against alleged inaction against the police.
The police, she said, had allegedly committed lapses in the probe of the death of the girls in 2017.
She shaved her head after staging a month-long satyagraha in Kerala's Palakkad since January 26.
The woman recently announced that she would shave her head and campaign across the state against the Left government if it did not take action on the police personnel for the alleged lapse.
Besides her, two activists tonsured their heads, expressing solidarity with the victims' mother.
People raised slogans seeking justice for the women and her daughters.
Congress leader and MP Remya Haridas and Mahila Congress president Lathika Subhash were also present.
The woman resorted to the protest weeks after the LDF government handed the probe of the death of the minor Dalit girls over to the CBI.
The High Court had also ordered a re-trial in the Walayar case last month.
Allowing appeals filed by the state government and the mother of the children, the court had, on January 6, ordered the re-trial by observing that there were serious lapses in the investigation and that there has been a miscarriage of justice.
A Division Bench of Justices A Hariprasad and MR Anitha had set aside a October 2019 order of POCSO (Special Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Court acquitting the five accused in the case for want of evidence.
The oldest of the siblings, aged 13, was found hanging in their hut in Walayar in Palakkad district on January 13,
2017, and the younger one (9) on March 4 the same year.
Both were allegedly sexually assaulted.
The mother of the girls had earlier sought a CBI probe.
Public outcry and protests had erupted in the state after the acquittal of the accused, seeking justice for the family of the girls.
The state government had, on November 18, 2019, removed the Public Prosecutor who handled the case and later filed the appeal in the High Court.