Villagers don’t let officials bury Unnao victims

UP POLICE SAID PRELIMINARY AUTOPSY FOUND NO INJURY MARKS ON THE VICTIMS

UNNAO: Angry relatives and local villagers on Thursday refused to let officials bury two Dalit girls found dead in a field in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, as police said a preliminary autopsy found no injuries on the victims and didn’t mention sexual assault.

Three Dalit girls, aged 13, 15 and 16, were found unconscious in a field near their home in Unnao district late on Wednesday by family members. Two of them died soon after, and the third, the oldest, was in a critical condition in a Kanpur hospital.

The Uttar Pradesh Police registered a case of murder and concealment of evidence against unknown persons, and picked up six people for questioning, including two male cousins of the victims. The families of the girls, however, demanded a federal probe, indicating they were not satisfied with the initial probe made by UP Police.

“We are sure the girls were murdered; it is common in this area,” said the mother of one of the girls.

Local officials and the victims’ families faced off twice during the day. In the morning, hundreds of angry local villagers confronted officials supervising the digging of the grave and said they won’t let the administration bury the victims. In the evening, minutes after the bodies of the victims arrived after autopsy, family members threw themselves before the earth movers and said they would not allow the burial in the night because it violated their local customs.→p8