Bringing back chilling memories of the Budaun Dalit sisters’ death case in May 2014, two Dalit sisters, 17 and 15, were found hanging from a tree in Tamolinpurwa village in Nighasan area of Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri on Wednesday evening.
During a press briefing, district police chief Sanjiv Suman, Lakhimpur said that all six accused in the matter have been arrested. One was caught in an encounter. The accused are identified as Suhail, Junaid, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin, and Arif. A sixth man, Chhotu allegedly introduced the girls to these men.
The official revealed that the girls were taken to a sugarcane field and raped by Suhail, Junaid, and Hafizul Rehman. “When the girls insisted on marriage, the men strangled them with their dupatta. Then, Karimuddin and Arif came to the spot and helped in the cover-up. They hung the bodies from the tree to make it look like suicide,” the officer said.
The police further added that the girls were not kidnapped but went willingly with the men on their bikes. Both the sisters were friends with Suhail and Junaid. All the accused were arrested from a neighbouring village.
A post-mortem by a panel of three doctors in the presence of the victim’s family will start shortly. Heavy police are deployed in the area and a post-mortem will be videotaped, the official added.
The family members have been accusing that the Dalit teens were kidnapped from their residence and were hanged after killing them. According to them, bike-borne youths had come to their residence and kidnapped the girls.
The incident took place in Tamolinpurwa village of Nighasan tehsil of Lakhimpur district in UP, where the dead bodies of two teens were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field on the outskirts. Both the minor girls are sisters and were alone at home while their parents had gone to the fields. While local police are investigating the matter, the state government has sent Inspector General (IG) of Range, Lakshmi Singh, to the spot.
Uttar Pradesh: Two minor Dalit girls found hanging from a tree in Lakhimpur
