Hours after the bodies of two Dalit sisters were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur, it has been confirmed that they had been raped and murdered. The two sisters, 15 and 17, were found hanging by a tree in sugarcane fields on Wednesday night barely a kilometer away from their home, three hours after the accused "forcibly" took them away on a motorcycle. The mother of the girls said the accused assaulted her as she tried to stop them from taking away their daughters.
Six persons, identified as Suhail, Junaid, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin, Arif and Chotu, have been arrested by the police. Chotu is said to be the neighbour of the girls and had introduced them to the other accused, hailing from Lalpur village.
As per the police, Sohail and Junaid "lured" the girls to farms where they raped them. Sohail, Hafizul and Junaid strangulated and killed the girls after the girls forced them to marry them. The accused then called their two more associates, Karimuddin and Arif, and hanged the girls to "eliminate the proof", the police said.
The case has revived the memories of Hathras (2020), Badaun (2014), and many such cases of crimes where the victims, many times related to each other, were killed in similar incidents.
Here is a recap of such past incidents:
Badaun, 2014
In May 2014, two Dalit girls went missing from Badaun district's Katra Sadatganj village in UP. While the police allegedly refused to file a report, they later said their dead bodies were found hanging by a tree. The next day, the villagers protested and alleged the two minor girls, who were also cousins, were gangraped before being murdered. Two police constables were among the five arrested in the case. The case triggered a political slugfest in Uttar Pradesh with the BSP seeking a CBI probe and Governor's rule in the state.
The case also reached the United Nations which condemned the incident as "brutal" gang rape and murder of two teenaged girls".
The case was transferred to the CBI in June 2014 which concluded that the two girls were not raped, contrary to the initial post-mortem report. The probe agency said that the girls had taken their own lives. The prime witness, Babu Ram, was said to be unreliable after he "failed the lie detector test".
Noida, 2017
In a similar incident, two girls, 13 and 18, were found dead hanging by a tree in Noida's Barola village. Reports and initial probe suggested it was a case of suicide since the rented room where the duo lived with their parents was locked from outside. The mother of the deceased girls had accused a distant relative of murdering them. Three relatives were later arrested after the family alleged "foul play". The police said Ravi, a distant relative, was involved in a "relationship with the elder girl". This has caused a rift between the two families. Ravi's uncle had reportedly called and threatened the victims' family two days before the murder saying that if they don't kill their daughter, he would.
Palakkad, 2017
In 2017, two sisters were found hanging in their house in a span of 52 days in Kerala's Palakkad. While both the cases were concluded to be that of suicide, the girls, aged 11 and 9, were found to have been sexually abused in the initial probe. Five people, including a minor, were booked for assaulting the girls. Two of the accused, V Madhu and M Madhu, were the deceased girls' mother's close relatives, according to reports. Another accused, Shibu, had been living with the family for a couple of years and had sexually abused the elder girl. The other four accused allegedly had abused both the minor girls.
Kokrajhar, 2021
In June 2021, the dead bodies of two minor sisters were found hanging from a tree in Kokrajhar district of Assam after which the family claimed the girls were raped before being murdered. The family members had reportedly gone to paddy fields and when they returned back in the afternoon, the two girls were nowhere to be found.
They began searching and their dead bodies were later found in a nearby forest, one kilometer away from their house.
Pilbhit, 2021
In March 2021, the dead bodies of two sisters were reportedly found hours after they had gone out to attend nature's call. While one was found hanging on a tree, the other dead body was found lying in a nearby field in Pilbhit's Kasimpur village. The two sisters worked in a nearby brick kiln.