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The mystery over the recovery of bodies of two minor girls from a village in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh was unravelled after the post-mortem report confirmed gang rape followed by “death due to hanging”.
The report clearly substantiates the suspicions raised by the family of the two victims, who happened to be first cousins.
“The post-mortem report has confirmed that the two girls, who went missing on Tuesday evening, were gang-raped and then hanged from a tree,” a police spokesperson told mediapersons in Lucknow on Thursday.
Each of the four accused, of which only two have been arrested so far, belong to the all powerful Yadav community which enjoys tremendous clout with the ruling dispensation headed by Akhilesh Yadav.
In fact Budaun was among the five Lok Sabha seats retained by the ruling Samajwadi Party with Akhilesh’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav winning from there.
Police connivance was also clearly visible as the local cops refused to lodge a FIR when the victims’ family first approached the concerned police station. It was only after there was a virtual public outrage and loud protests that the cops got into action.
Two policemen were suspended following intervention of the state government. However, they were still absconding. Likewise two of the four accused were also still at large.
Reports reaching the state headquarters from the scene of the crime in Katra village said that the matter was reported to the Ushiat police station soon after the girls went missing on Tuesday evening while they had gone to attend the nature’s call.
However, the family members of the victims were shooed away by the cops, even as they named the suspects, who had been reportedly spotted by a villager.
Next morning, however, the same cops went to the victim’s home to inform that the bodies of the girls were found hanging from a tree in one corner of the village. That was followed by violent protest and a group of villagers blocked the neighbouring highway which eventually drew the attention of the district authorities who later sprung into action.
In the meantime, two of the allegedly guilty cops slipped away from the scene while two of the accused had already managed to flee from the village.
Sources in Budaun described the culprits as “dreaded outlaws” who were notorious for getting away with murder, essentially because of their clout with the administration.