Postmortem found no injury marks on Dalit girls: UP DGP

UNNAO/LUCKNOW: There were no injury marks on the bodies of the two teenage Dalit girls who were found dead with their hands tied in a field in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district late on Wednesday and the cause of their death could not be ascertained in post-mortem, a top police officer said on Thursday, even as locals stopped the burial of two girls unless their bodies were first handed over to the families.

“The postmortem of the two girls was done by a panel of doctors and no injury before death or external injuries were found on their bodies. The cause of death could not be ascertained and viscera has been preserved for chemical analysis. We are taking help of forensic experts and looking into all possibilities,” Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Hitesh Chandra Awasthi said.

“The girls left the house around 3pm on Wednesday to collect fodder from the family fields. When they did not return till late night, the family mounted a search with villagers,” said Unnao superintendent of police Anand Kulkarni.

The three girls, aged 13, 15 and 16, were found unconscious in a corner of a field in Babuhara village in Asoha, around 36 km south of Lucknow, with their hands tied with a dupatta belonging to one of the girls, the local police said. The villagers informed the police and rushed the girls to a local hospital where two of them were declared brought dead, while the third was rushed to the Unnao hospital and later referred to Kanpur.

Villagers on Thursday