Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh: On Tuesday, two girls were discovered hanging from a tree with the same dupatta in a mango orchard in Bhagautipur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad. The girls, aged 17 and 15, were friends. The police have declared it a case of ‘suicide’ with the post-mortem report confirming ante-mortem (before death) hanging.
Locals, though, are upset. According to them, the police declared the deaths as suicide even before the post-mortem was done. The families of the two girls, both from the Dalit community, have alleged that their suspicion of the deaths being a murder were also dismissed.
The girls, they add, were found with injury marks on their bodies and thorns tangled in their hair.
“Why would someone planning to commit suicide put thorns in their hair? Both girls had injuries near their chests,” said the father of the 17-year-old to ThePrint, showing a photo of his daughter’s body on his phone taken before the cremation Wednesday morning.
A senior police officer, however, said that no official complaint has been received from the families of the deceased girls.
Speaking to ThePrint, the father of the 17-year-old said his daughter weighed about 50 kg, while the 15-year-old weighed around 35 kg. Yet, his daughter’s body was found hanging higher than the younger girl’s, raising suspicions of foul play.
The father of the 15-year-old also questioned how the two girls could have ventured into the dark orchard in the middle of the night. “We want justice. The police should investigate this as a possible murder. My daughter could not have committed suicide,” he said.
Another villager who visited the site where the girls were found pointed out that it had rained on 26 August. He noted that if the girls had committed suicide, there should have been mud marks on their feet from the tree. However, no such marks were found.
However, the families do not suspect anyone in the murder, claiming that the girls had no enmity with anyone or connections or conflicts with any boys. “If our daughters were involved with a boy, why would they both commit suicide together?” asked the father of the 15-year-old.
The report of the post-mortem examination, conducted by a panel of doctors and also videographed, was released Wednesday. “The incident is not a case of murder but rather a suicide. No signs of injury or sexual assault were found,” Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Farrukhabad, Avnindra Singh, said to ThePrint.
Speaking to ThePrint, another senior police officer explained that the thorn marks on the girls’ bodies appeared after their bodies were laid on the ground.
“Their bodies were laid on the thorny ground of the orchard after they were brought down from the tree. This likely caused the marks on their bodies,” says the officer.
The families of the deceased, meanwhile, have rejected the findings of the post-mortem examination. They had initially refused to cremate the bodies, demanding a proper investigation. However, after Farrukhabad SP Alok Priyadarshi assured them of a thorough probe, they proceeded with the rituals at 11 am Wednesday.
The police have recovered a phone from the crime scene and a SIM card from the 15-year-old girl. A senior officer stated that they are investigating the phone for crucial evidence.
‘They were inseparable’
Around 8 pm Wednesday, 15 women were gathered in the narrow alley outside the home of the 17-year-old to offer their condolences. Her mother, overwhelmed with grief, couldn’t hold back her tears. She has four sons and two daughters. The deceased daughter was the 4th eldest. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, her education had stopped, and she had taken over household chores, the mother said, adding that there had never been any complaints of disputes or quarrels involving her daughter from the neighbors.
A year ago, the 15-year-old (then 14) had moved into her father’s house next door following her mother’s death. Until then, she had been cared for by her paternal aunt, Asha, in a nearby village. The two girls quickly became close friends.
“They were inseparable,” said the father of the 17-year-old. “Our daughter often stayed at their house, and sometimes she would come to ours. She was like our own daughter.”
His wife recalled that on 26 August, their daughter had gone to her paternal aunt’s house with her siblings around 7 pm, returning by 8.30 pm. Later, she along with her siblings and friends set out to attend the Janmashtami celebrations just 250 metres from their home.
They never returned.
The mother of the 17-year-old woke up at 1.30 am and noticed that while the rest of her children were home, her daughter was still missing. They assumed initially that she may have gone to stay with her paternal aunt who lived close by. They contacted the aunt, who confirmed that the girl wasn’t with her. A search began soon after.
Around 6 am the next morning, 20-year-old Brijesh, a resident of Bhagautipur village, went to the mango orchards and discovered the two girls hanging from a tree. He immediately ran back and informed Phoolmati, a 50-year-old resident, who then went to the orchard to confirm what Brijesh had seen.
“I saw the girls’ legs hanging from a distance,” Phoolmati told ThePrint. She screamed and ran the 100 meters to the house of the 17-year-old to inform the family.
The incident has sparked anger among the villagers, raising concerns about women’s safety in the area.
“The police should find the killers of these girls and do to them what was done to the girls. Such an incident will make it difficult for mothers and daughters to leave their homes,” said one woman.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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