Kannur: The deaths of three members of a family within a span of a few hours at Mooriyad in Kuthuparamba town have raised disturbing questions about the toll of a criminal case born out of an adolescent relationship.

On December 26, Kishan E (22) was found dead at the house of his maternal grandmother in Mooriyad around 3.15 pm. Hours later, his grandmother, Reji (58) and her younger sister, Roja (56), were found dead in two separate rooms of the same house. Police have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 194 of the BNSS.

According to the Kuthuparamba police, three friends dropped Kishan at his grandmother’s house around 3 pm and left. Around 15 minutes later, they came rushing and broke down the door, only to find Kishan dead inside. “He informed his friends of his decision to end his life,” said Kuthuparamba SHO Sanjaya Kumar P C. He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

At the time of Kishan’s death, Reji was at a nearby shop where she worked, and Roja was at her third sister’s house. On hearing about the death of Kishan, they came home around 6.15 pm, shut the door. They were later found dead in two different rooms in a suspected case of suicide.

“They were very close to Kishan. They came home on hearing of Kishan’s death,” said a neighbour. Kishan’s parents are residents of Alakapuri at Neerveli in Mangattidam panchayat near Kuthuparamba. But he has been staying at his grandmother’s place, Reji House at Mooriyad.

Family members say Kishan had been under severe mental strain for the past four years following the registration of a case against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. “It was an interfaith love affair that started when both were in school,” said his uncle Vinod Kumar Champadan (53).

She was around three or four years younger than him and his neighbour. “Kishan used to go to her house, and her mother would call him too,” said Champadan. But a day after Kishan turned 18, her family filed a case against him under the POCSO Act, he said. The case, he said, shattered Kishan. “He could not write his Class XII final examination. The case has been dragging on for the past four years,” said Champadan, who is the complainant in the three unnatural death case.

The POCSO case is pending before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), said Kuthuparamba SHO Sanjaya Kumar. But Champadan said he was told that the JJB dropped offences under the POCSO Act. The police, however, said they were not aware of dropping offences.

Though the case was registered after Kishan turned 18, he was treated as a juvenile in the case. Relatives said the prolonged proceedings took a heavy toll on him. The girl has since turned 18, they said.

In recent years, courts have repeatedly flagged concerns over the application of the POCSO Act to consensual adolescent relationships, with the Allahabad and Delhi High Courts observing that the law was not intended to criminalise such relationships.

However, these observations have largely been confined to bail considerations and have not altered the statutory framework. In the unnatural death case registered by the police, the POCSO proceedings have been cited as a factor linked to Kishan’s death.