The bodies of a 20-year-old woman and her 17-year-old sister were found in the Bilsanda area of Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit district on Tuesday, hours after they went missing, reported the Hindustan Times. The police have registered a first information report for murder in the case.
The sisters, who worked at a brick kiln and lived in shanties, had gone missing from their homes on Monday. After they did not return home in a few hours, the family went looking for them. “Around midnight, they found the body of the younger sister while that of the elder sister was found in the morning,” Pilibhit Superintendent of Police Jai Prakash said.
The body of the younger girl was found in a field about 200 metres from their home. The body of the elder sister was found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field.
Prakash ruled out the possibility of rape and said that no injury was found on any other part except the neck, according to the autopsy report, reported The Indian Express. “The cause of death of the girl [younger sister] whose body was found in a field is asphyxia due to throttling,” he said. “The autopsy report of another girl says ante-mortem [before death] hanging.”
The police said the families have not blamed anyone for the deaths or alleged rape in the case. They prima facie suspect the involvement of the family and are looking into it.
“Victims’ family remained silent even after recovering the body of one girl on Monday night,” Prakash said. “The family did not disclose it to anyone, including their neighbours. Even after another girl was found hanging, the family did not approach the police. The police came to know about the death today morning when a local resident informed about it.”
A number of incidents of crimes against women have been reported in the state in the past few months. On Monday, a sub-inspector in Basti district was arrested after he was accused of stalking a woman and harassing her family by filing false cases against them.
In February, the bodies of two girls in Unnao district were found in a field. Two accused were arrested in the case. A month earlier, three men were arrested for allegedly raping and killing a Dalit woman, whose body was found hanging from a tree.
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