Unnao deaths case: Two suspects held for murder; kin perform last rites of two girls as another battles for life

The Uttar Pradesh Police held two people for the murder of two teenage girls who were found dead in a village in Unnao district. One of the accused held in the case is a teenager, according to the police. Three girls — aged 16, 15 and 14 — were found in a field in the Babuhara village of Asoha police station area on Wednesday night. They had left their home to bring fodder for cattle. “Vinay and a teenager have been held in connection with the case. The matter is a fallout of one-side love affair. The accused gave some pesticide with water to the three girls,” PTI quoted Lucknow Range IG Laxmi Singh as saying. Apart from Section 302 (murder) of the IPC, police have slapped Section 201 against the accused for causing disappearance of evidence on a complaint of a victim’s father. While the last rites of the two Dalit girls who were found dead in the field was performed amid heavy security on Friday morning, according to reports, the condition of the third remains critical. While two girls died, the third is battling for life at a hospital. The 16-year-old girl was rushed to a district hospital and later referred to a Kanpur healthcare facility where she is presently undergoing treatment. The local residents had rushed the teenagers, who are all related to each other, to a hospital where two of them were declared brought dead. On Friday morning, the bodies of Komal (15) and Kajal (14) were buried in their agriculture fields in the presence of senior officials and police personnel in large numbers. The bodies were brought to their village after a post-mortem was done on Thursday but the last rites could not be performed on the day, police said. With regard to performing the last rites, Unnao District Magistrate Ravindra Kumar said talks were held on Thursday with the deceased girls’ family, who were not willing to take it up immediately as they were waiting for their son to arrive from another city and had also cited that the funeral can not be done as it was already sunset. The DM refuted reports of any pressure being exerted on the family and said that the last rites were performed on Friday as per the wishes of the family. When asked if the family has made any demand, the DM said no letter has been given by the family to the administration and state government. “However, some outsiders present in the village on Thursday were making the family members write a letter stating their demands and the administration had come to know about it,” the PTI report said. Our officials, including the ADM, were present on the spot but the family has so far not given any “demand letter” to us, Kumar added. The DM claimed that despite the presence of some outsiders, there was peace in the village. The district unit president of BJP Raj Kishore Rawat and local MLA Anil Singh were present during the funeral on Friday. The district officials had made elaborate arrangements with heavy deployment of security personnel and barricades being installed. The security covered about one kilometre on the four paths reaching the village with a magistrate-level official posted at every barricade to check people. Personnel from six police stations were also deployed for cover. Director General of Police Hitesh Chandra Awasthi had said on Thursday, “The post-mortem of the two girls was done by a panel of doctors and no injury before death or external injuries were found on their bodies. The cause of death could not be ascertained and viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis.” “We are taking help of forensic experts and looking into all possibilities,” the DGP had said. A medical bulletin by the Kanpur hospital treating the third girl had noted that it was a suspected case of poisoning. Meanwhile, uproar erupted in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Friday over the Unnao deaths. BSP legislators walked out of the Assembly, alleging that police did not take prompt action in the case. The party moved an adjournment notice with BSP Legislature Party leader Lalji Verma alleging that police did not take any action on the day of the incident and accused the government of adopting a lax attitude. In his reply, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna gave details of the case, saying the post-mortem report of the two girls has been received and no injury marks have been found on the bodies. Six police teams have been set up for investigation into the case and the government is with families of the victims, Khanna said. But Verma expressed dissatisfaction over the Khanna’s reply and staged a walkout with his party MLAs.