UP Teen Dalit Sisters Raped: Two Dalit sisters, aged 17 and 15, were raped, murdered and then hung from a tree by five men in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur, police said today, as a village filled with anger over the horrific crime and what he called “insensitive management”. Police
Know More: 2 Minor Girls, Sisters, Found Hanging From Tree In UP’s Lakhimpur
All the six people involved in the double murder have been arrested and one of them was caught in the encounter this morning, police said. The accused are Suhail, Junaid, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin and Arif. A sixth person named Chhotu, the neighbor of the girls, has also been arrested, who had allegedly introduced them to these boys.
The post-mortem has confirmed rape and strangulation of the girls. District police Chief Sanjeev Suman told reporters that yesterday the girls were taken to a sugarcane field and raped by Suhail and Junaid. Others helped both destroy the evidence.
Police said the sisters went volunteering with Suhail and Junaid in their bikes, adding that they were “friends” with two men from the neighboring village. The girls’ families have opposed the statement and alleged that the girls were abducted.
“The girls were raped in the fields. When she insisted that the men marry her, the men strangled her with her dupatta. The men then called Karimuddin and Arif to help cover up the crime. They hung the bodies from a tree to make it look like a suicide,” the official said.
The girls’ mother told the police that they were abducted three hours before they were found dead. She had alleged that three youths forcibly took her daughters on a motorcycle.
Later, the family found their bodies hanging from a tree near a sugarcane field. The girls were found hanging from their own dupatta and there are no injury marks.
The police faced protests from angry villagers, who blocked their way to the girls’ house to take the bodies for post-mortem. In a video, Sanjeev Suman can be heard asking the protesters to stop blocking the road.
The officer denied the allegation of insensitivity of the villagers. Officer Sanjeev Suman said, “There are 1,000 cameras on the spot. We are looking into the matter with utmost sensitivity. We settled it peacefully. The family has no problem with us.”
The incident has brought back horrific memories of the 2014 incident in Badaun, when the bodies of two cousins were found hanging from a tree.
The opposition has attacked the Yogi Adityanath government regarding the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh.
