Relatives of two teenaged cousins who were hanged after being allegedly gang-raped in Badaun district on Wednesday.- pHOTO: PTI
BADAUN (UTTAR PRADESH): In a crime that is rapidly gathering casteist and political overtones, two teenage girls from a backward community were raped and murdered allegedly by three brothers of the Yadav community in the village of Katra under Ushait police outpost in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh.
The girls, who were cousins, had left their house together at 9 p.m. on Tuesday and walked toward the nearby open field as there was no toilet at home. Their bodies were found hanging from a tree 250 metres away from their home at about 4 a.m. on Wednesday after neighbours and relatives began a frantic search.
“We have arrested one of the brothers, Pappu Yadav, and a hunt is on for the other two,” DIG Bareilly R.K.S. Rathore told The-Hindu . The State Government on Thursday suspended three policemen, including constable Sarvesh who has been detained for interrogation. The Katra Saadatganj police outpost in-charge, Ram Vilas and head constable, Chatrapal, are the other policemen suspended.
The IG (Special Task Force) Ashish Gupta said the autopsy on the two girls confirmed the cause of death as “ante mortem hanging”. It was also “indicative of rape”.
Although the parents informed the police immediately after the girls failed to return, the policemen asked them not to worry. The villagers immediately fanned out in all directions to trace the girls. After the bodies were found before daybreak in a mangrove, they informed the police, who however made no effort to come to the crime scene.
Only when irate villagers gathered and sought action against the killers and the police chowki staff did the policemen reach the spot. The villagers, however, did not allow the policemen to lower the bodies, but relented after local politicians BSP MLA from Jalalabad Neeraj Maurya, Bhagwan Singh Shakya of the Maurya Samaj and Brijpal Shakya of the Congress pacified them. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav justified the suspension of three police officials charged with laxity. (Additional reporting by Atiq Khan in Lucknow)
Source : The Hindu
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