Two Dalit girls found dead in UP's Fatehpur: Kin allege rape, seek CBI probe; autopsy points to drowning

Fatehpur (UP): A day after the bodies of two sisters were pulled out from a pond in Fatehpur, their family alleged rape and demanded a CBI probe while the autopsy report pointed to drowning. Earlier, the family had suspected a failed rape bid after the bodies were recovered from the pond in the Asodhar area of Fatehpur on Monday. Superintendent of Police Prashant Verma on Tuesday said a panel of doctors conducted the girls’ autopsy, which was videographed. “There are misleading reports in social media that the hands of the girls were tied and their eyes were damaged,” he said, rejecting apprehensions of rape. “In the post-mortem report, it came to the fore that they died due to drowning,” the SP said. The victims’ father, however, alleged that injuries to their eyes indicated that they were thrown into the pond after the murder. “We want that an FIR be registered and the matter be probed by the CBI. I am not satisfied with the post-mortem report,” he said. When asked whether any complaint was given by the victim’s father, Asodhar SHO Ranjit Bahadur Singh said, “I have not got any complaint in this regard.” Earlier in the day, the SP had said that both girls, aged 12 and 8, had gone to the pond to fetch ‘singharha’ (water caltrops) and seemed to have drowned there. The girl’s mother said the bodies were pulled out of the pond by their uncle with the help of three to four other people. The girls’ uncle had alleged that when he was informing the district magistrate about the incident over the phone, a police constable came to him and told him not to speak about this to anyone. He claimed that the people who helped him pull out the bodies from the pond have been detained by police so that the truth does not emerge. He alleged that the girls were raped and then killed.