Two Dalit sisters, both minors were found hanging from a tree in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh on September 14, 2022. Six men were arrested for the rape and murder of the two minor sisters.

The two Dalit sisters, aged 15 and 17 years old were found dead under the Nighasan police station limits of Lakhimpur Kheri. Local villagers and the girls’ family accused three men of rape and murder.

The mother of the girls informed reporters that she suspected that her daughters were murdered. She alleged that three youths from a neighbouring village had abducted the sisters while they were cutting fodder. The police arrested six men for the rape and murder of the minor girls.

The district administration deployed police personnel at the house of the deceased to maintain law and order. Visitors called on the grieving family, and the girls’ mother appealed to them. The mother said, “hang the accused the same way they hanged my daughters”.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the trial of the case in a fast-track court and the police forensic team gathered evidence and recorded statements of the accused.

Lakhimpur Kheri: Dalit Sisters Killed

The First Information Report (FIR) was filed against four people, one of them from the same village as the sisters. The mother claimed that the accused forcibly took away her daughter on motorcycles. She alleged that her daughters were raped and then murdered. The FIR was lodged under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

A local resident found the bodies of the two sisters hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field around half a kilometre from their house. As news of the horror spread, locals staged a protest and blocked a road. The blockade was lifted after senior police officials intervened and assured that strict action would be taken against the guilty if any.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem, Inspector General of Police, Lucknow Range, Laxmi Singh said the girls were found hanging by their own dupattas and no visible injuries were found. Post-mortem examination of the bodies began this morning.

Six men were arrested for the crime in and police officer Suman said, “We have arrested each and everyone involved in the crime.” Those arrested for the murders are Suhail, Junaid, Karimuddin, Arif, Haziful Rehman, and Chotu.

The police revealed that the girls were not abducted and went willingly with the men on their motorcycles.

The officer said, “When the girls insisted on marriage, the men strangled them with their dupatta… They hung the bodies from the tree to make it look like suicide.”

The officer also told reporters that the girls were taken to the sugarcane field and raped by two of the accused, Suhail and Junaid. After the sisters insisted on marriage, Sohail, Junaid, and Hafeezur strangled and killed them. Following the murder, Karimuddin and Arif helped cover up the crime.

Suggested Reading: 3-Year-Old Girl Raped And Murdered In Lakhimpur, UP: Report