Lucknow, Sept 15: Six men were arrested on Thursday after bodies of two Dalit teenage sisters, hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, drew public outrage. According to sources, the accused have admitted to murdering the girls after rape.
The accused have been identified as Chotu Gautam, Junaid, Sohail, Hafizul, Karimuddin and Arif. SP Lakhimpur Kheri Sanjeev Suman said that Junaid was nabbed after an encounter, where he was shot in his leg.
The main accused, Chotu Gautam, had reportedly introduced the sisters to other three accused. One of the accused wanted to marry one of the sisters, they added. Police, meanwhile, has denied kidnapping theory and said that the sisters went on their own.
Late on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh police revealed that two teenage sisters were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field located about a kilometre away from their house in Nighasan police station limits of Lakhimpur Kheri. As soon as the news broke, political reactions began pouring in.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attacked the Uttar Pradesh government over “increasing" crimes against women in the state and compared the twin deaths with the Hathras gang-rape and murder.
The mother of the two girls alleged that they were murdered and accused three youths from the neighbouring village in Nighasan police station limits of abducting and killing them. Police said their bodies were sent for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of deaths.
Meanwhile, villagers held a demonstration at Nighasan Cross to protest the killings. Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Suman and Assistant Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh talked to the irate villagers in a bid to console them, while a heavy police forced was deployed in the village to ensure law and order.
Comparing Wednesday’s case to the Hathras incident, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet, “Murder of two Dalit sisters after kidnapping them in Nighasan police station area. Their father’s allegation on the police is very serious that they carried out ‘panchnama’ and post-mortem without the family’s consent. After farmers in Lakhimpur, the killing of Dalits is now a repetition of the murder of ‘Hathras’ daughter’."
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also took to Twitter to condemn the incident. “The killings of the two sisters in Lakhimpur is heartbreaking. Family says the girls were abducted in broad daylight. Law and order in the state doesn’t improve by giving false advertisements in newspapers and TV everyday. After all, why are heinous crimes against women increasing in Uttar Pradesh? When will the government wake up?"
A 19-year-old Dalit woman was raped allegedly by four upper-caste men in Hathras on September 14. She died on September 29 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.
The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on September 30. Her family members had alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out “according to the wishes of the family".
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