In Budaun repeat, two teen girls found hanging from electric pole in UP

LUCKNOW: In a grim reminder of Budaun case, bodies of two teenage girls were found hanging from an electric pole in Jeera Bojhi village of Lakhimpur Kheri on Friday evening.
The bodies were spotted by locals who informed the police. The girls, aged 14 and 15 years, were neighbours. The bodies were found in a sugarcane field which is barely 500 metres away from the girls’ homes.
Police said though no signs of sexual assault were visible in initial probe they suspect the girls were murdered. The villagers told reporters that the police arrived one hour later after being informed.
Father of the 15-year-old victim also reached the spot and alleged that his daughter had been killed and then hanged.
While locals brought down the body of the 14-year-old girl, the other teen’s body was brought down by the police.
SP Kheri Poonam told TOI that the girls were friends and used to go to the fields around 2pm daily. They used to return before dusk and were always accompanied by the younger brother of the 14-year-old girl.
However, on Friday, the girls went alone as the girl’s brother was unwell, SP added.
Poonam said girls’ clothes were found intact and they were found hanging with their stoles.
“The bodies have been sent for postmortem examination. If any foul play or sexual assault comes to fore then their swabs would be sent for further tests,” SP Kheri told TOI.
A source privy to the probe told TOI that there were signs of dragging in the field and girls’ slippers were found in different directions, which indicate a scuffle between the victims and a third person.
In Budaun, two teenage girls were found hanging from a tree in 2014.
The incident had sparked a national uproar amid allegations that the girls, who were cousins, were raped and hanged, However, a CBI probe established that the girls had committed suicide.