The arrested were identified as Suhail, Junaid, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin and Arif. Chhotu, the sixth accused, is a neighbour of the two girls.
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police managed to arrest six men hours after two Dalit sisters were found hanging from a tree in Lakhimpur. The two sisters, 17 and 15, were raped and murdered, the police said.
The arrested were identified as Suhail, Junaid, Hafizul Rehman, Karimuddin and Arif. Chhotu, the sixth accused, is a neighbour of the two girls and was the one to get the men introduced to the victims. District police chief Sanjiv Suman told the media that Suhail and Junaid took the girls to a sugarcane field and raped them.
He added, “When the two girls insisted the rapists to marry them, they strangled them with their dupatta. Moments later, Karimuddin and Arif came to the spot and helped the duo to cover up the incident. The bodies were hung to make it look like a suicide.”
However, the police said the girls were not forcibly taken. They willingly went with Suhail and Junaid, who were reportedly their friends. The claim was refuted by the girls’ parents who said the duo was forcibly taken away on motorcycles three hours before they were found dead.
Suman said, “We have arrested each and everyone involved in the crime.” All the arrested men are from a neighbouring village and while five of them were arrested on Wednesday, one was held on Thursday morning in an encounter.
While there were no visible injury marks on the bodies, the police had to face resistance while taking away the bodies for post-mortem. The villagers gheraoed the police and demanded justice. In a video, Suman is heard asking the villagers to clear the way in order to take the bodies for the autopsy.
